From Beyond the Clouds
by Rosabell
Summary: Seven years after the Finale, Chris starts getting memories of his old self after heading home on a Friday. As the memories become more coherent, the child becomes more and more traumatized. Meanwhile, a stranger's purpose may affect Chris and Wyatt
1. Chapter 1

From Beyond the Clouds

Chapter 1

Seven-year-old Chris Halliwell was climbing the tree, or at least trying to, because while they were playing catch one of his friends managed to knock it into the branches. Chris was small for his age, and the branches looked thin, so the other boys chose him to climb the branches as they collected at the bottom to watch him. Chris was not certain exactly what they would do if he did fall—it was not like they would be of much help, despite being bigger than him, but he did acknowledge he was the most suitable person for the job.

The ball had conveniently fallen into a hole that perhaps one of the squirrels made in the trunk, which made it harder as Chris's hand was slightly too big to fit in easily. He was tempted to use his telekinesis to draw the ball out, but his mother had lectured both brothers relentlessly on the harmfulness of personal gain. Wyatt was a little put out by this rule, especially being Twice-blessed with all that power to spare, but Chris had quietly accepted it because somehow he trusted there was a greater reason for avoiding personal gain. It was just that his young mind could not grasp it yet.

The issue, however, is what exactly is personal gain? Surely helping out family is not personal? Or helping out friends?

" You got it yet, Chris?" One of the boys, Billy, called from below.

Chris's sneakers slipped a little, but he held on. " Not yet!" He yelled down. " It's in a hole."

" Great throw, John." Billy snickered. " You'd make a great basketball player."

" C'mon Chris, we wanna play!" John complained, ignoring Billy's teasing.

" I'm trying!" Chris called back down. His foot slid a little more, but he was still unafraid, only tightening his grip on the rough branches. Using his fingers he tried to pry away at the bark, but the wood within stayed firm. Chris stretched his neck to see the hint of the blue ball from the light shining through the leaves.

" Someone toss me a stick!" Chris yelled. John obliged by throwing a miserably thin twig. " Something thicker!" Chris tossed it back.

The boys scattered from below him to search for a stick, knowing what Chris had in mind. Chris slid again and adjusted his footing for a better hold. His arms and legs were getting tired and he really wanted to jump down, but it was hard getting up there and he knew that it was too high for him to come down without spraining his ankle or worse.

He looked around, sighing, and really wishing he could use his powers to get the ball out.

Max came back with a decent stick and threw it up to him. Unfortunately, as Chris reached out to grab it, his foot slipped and he fell back over on a branch. The boys below shouted in alarm. Heart pounding, Chris tried to flip back upright, but he was so off-balance his body swayed dangerously and he was afraid of doing anything to cause him to fall over completely.

" Chris!"

_No exposure no exposure no exposure,_ Chris thought frantically. The boys below him started to shout for help when it became apparent Chris could not right himself.

" What is all this?" A gentle but firm voice demanded. Chris was afraid to look for fear of unbalancing.

" He was trying to get the ball." He heard Billy tell the stranger.

" Ah." The branches below him rustled, and he felt gentle hands support him until he was upright again. A woman's hand slipped to the hole and pulled at the wood once. The wood gave way, and she reached in to pull the ball out.

The stranger jumped down, setting Chris gently down on the ground despite the fall, and handed him the ball.

" Try not to throw it into a tree again?" The woman addressed the boys, and Chris saw her briefly. She was Asian, with long hair braided and coiled into a bun, an air of composure about her. She smiled at them, and then she was gone.

The boys stared at each other.

" Whoa." Billy whispered. " Chris, you all right?"

" Yeah," Chris shuddered, though not out of fear, more of awe. " I think so…"

oO

Piper finished chatting with the other mother, who called her daughter to get ready to go home. She turned around, panicking slightly when she caught sight of Wyatt but not of Chris where the boy was supposed to be. A quick scan revealed he was standing by a large tree in the playground. The other boys surrounded him, and they were all standing there, not doing anything.

Not overly concerned, Piper glanced at her watch. It was starting to get late, and she had to get back in time to cook dinner for everyone.

" Wyatt! Chris!" She called. " It's time to go!"

As usual, Wyatt complained. " Aw, Mom! Just a few more minutes!"

And as usual, Chris remained silent, preferring to see how his brother dealt with the situation. Piper shook her head.

" You can play with them tomorrow, honey. Mommy has to go cook dinner for all of you, and if we keep dawdling dinner will be late. Come on boys!"

Chris turned to his friends, who wordlessly said goodbye to him. He jogged over first, and waited as Wyatt stomped unhappily over to them.

They left the playground, the boys walking on either side of Piper.

" How come you won't let _Dad_ cook?" Wyatt moped.

" No!" Chris protested. " I like Mom's cooking."

" Yeah, but if Dad cooks then we can play a little more."

" Yeah, but I'd rather have a good dinner." Chris brushed his hair out of his eyes. Piper's eyes widened at the scratches she saw on the back of her boy's hand.

" Chris, where did those come from?" She asked, taking hold of his hand and inspecting it gently. It was only the skin that peeled off, but she could not remember when Chris had fallen so he could scrape his hand like that. On the other hand, how _does _a boy scrape the _back _of his hand?

" Oh, the ball was in a hole. I had to get it out." Chris replied. Then he brightened at his mother. " It was so awesome! John threw it into the tree and I had to climb it, and then I started falling, and then this lady came along and she climbed the tree and widened the hole by breaking part of it out and then jumped down with me!"

" Wait a minute, you started falling?" Wyatt snickered, since obviously Chris was unharmed. " You suck at climbing trees, Chris."

" Do not!"

" Now, settle down." Piper was not so much worried that Chris had been climbing a tree. Boys would be boys, after all, but she was more concerned about the lady. To her knowledge, normally women do not go around climbing trees for boys or breaking a hole open. " Did you see what she looked like?"

" Oh, she was so cool!" Chris laughed. " She's really pretty, and really fast too. One minute she was there, and then the next she was gone!"

" Wait," Piper snapped, " She _shimmered?_"

" No." Chris shook his head. " She walked. I would have noticed if she shimmered or orbed or something, but she was fast and quiet. What's that word? Stealy?"

" Stealthy." Wyatt supplied brightly.

" Yeah, that's the word. And she's so pretty!"

" Chris has a crush! Chris has a crush!" Wyatt laughed.

" Ew! Gross! You're a jerk, Wyatt!" Chris swung a fake punch in Wyatt's direction. Wyat pulled a fake block.

" Chris has a crush!"

" I do not! She's too old!"

" Settle down!" Piper told her boys. Normally she would have allowed the bickering to continue. They were brothers, after all. However, the lady Chris mentioned worried her.

They had arrived at the house as she mused, the boys bickering without her really noticing, except to pull them back a little whenever they had to cross a street. The manor loomed before them and the boys ran up the steps to the porch even though they did not have the keys. Piper did not hurry, even as the two boys jumped up and down impatiently. Wyatt's reluctance to leave the playground had quickly faded with his haste to get home.

Opening the door, she heard the two hurry inside. Closing the door behind her, she followed them into the kitchen.

" Wyatt, put down those cookies!" She commanded. " Chris, no helping him!"

Chris giggled. Wyatt just pouted in disappointment. " But Mom—"

" Ah! No arguments!" She folded her arms. " After eating all of them yesterday, you don't get to eat today. Got that?"

Wyatt pouted some more.

" Piper?" Leo called as he entered the living room. " I thought so."

" Hey Dad!" Chris smiled at his father.

" Hey buddy!" Leo bent down and picked Chris up, swinging him around. Chris burst into bubbles of laughter. " How was school today?"

" Good."

" You, Wyatt?"

" Okay."

" Did you get the chicken out to defrost?" Piper asked Leo.

" Yes," Leo rolled his eyes and grinned at his wife, setting Chris down.

" Why don't you two go upstairs?" Piper told the boys.

" Yeah!" Wyatt dug into his bookbag. " Hey Chris, let me show you this cool videogame Bob lended me."

" Lent, Wyatt," Piper corrected.

" Lent." Wyatt rushed upstairs, Chris following.

Leo watched as they disappeared from view, and then turned to his wife. He knew her well enough to tell she had gotten rid of the boys to talk to him. " What is it?" He asked.

" Leo, something happened at the playground."

" What?"

" Chris saw—well, you'd probably think I'm just paranoid." Piper told Leo what Chris told her.

Leo paused. " Piper, so the lady was nice. That doesn't mean she's a demon out to get Chris."

" I know, I know, see what I mean? But normal women don't _do _that. I know if I see a kid up there, for one thing, I wouldn't go up that tree myself! I'd order the kid down if he were falling."

" So? Maybe it was an eccentric woman."

" Who are you, and what have you done with my husband?"

Leo rolled his eyes. " Come on, Piper. Someone had to get the ball out. Maybe this woman was athletic, and could climb very well. It's not like Chris told you every step of what she did, did he?"

" No." Piper sighed. " It's just, I don't know what I'd do if something happened to him. He doesn't have as much power as Wyatt, obviously, so…and how did she just disappear?"

" She didn't just disappear. Chris told you that she was very fast, didn't he? Who knows? If she really isn't an innocent, maybe she is a whitelighter who happened to see Chris is in trouble and went to help."

" I guess that's possible."

Suddenly, there was a jingling of orbs, and Paige materialized.

" Demon!" The witch yelled, before running to them. Piper snapped her hands up, ready to blast. Seconds later a demon shimmered in.

Piper flicked her hands. A small explosion erupted from the demon's left shoulder, but otherwise nothing happened.

" Uh-oh…" Paige muttered, " Scissors!"

In a swirl of blue orbs, the scissors moved from their spot on the kitchen counter and flew at the demon, who merely caught it. With a crush of his fingers, the metal and plastic turned to dust.

" This is not good." Piper turned to Leo. " Get back!"

Leo dashed to the other side of the kitchen to grab some potions, flinging them furiously at the demon. Two missed, one hit, and the demon howled as he was engulfed in flames, before turning into ash.

" That was a close one," Paige breathed. " Everyone in one piece? Am I in one piece? Damn it, just bought this shirt too. Henry's so gonna kill me."

" Mom? Dad?" Chris rushed down the stairs, followed by Wyatt. " Aunt Paige? Are you okay?"

" Yes, honey, we're fine." Piper reassured her youngest child. " And remember what I told you about coming down only when we call you?"

" We heard you guys saying this is bad." Wyatt protested. " You were like ' uh-oh' and stuff."

" Well, everything is taken care of now." Piper told the two of them. " Why don't you go upstairs and continue playing your videogame?"

" …Okay…" Chris looked at the three of them to confirm they were all right.

" Come on, Chris," Wyatt urged, having taken a look for himself while Piper was talking, " Let's go. I bet I can totally beat you at level 5!"

The boys went upstairs again, and Paige nodded briefly at them. " Well, thanks, sis, bro-in-law, I better get back before Henry seriously decides to kill me. See you around!"

" Don't go around attracting demons!" Piper yelled as she began to orb.

" I wasn't doing it on purpose!" Paige managed to say before the orbs carried her away.

Piper turned around. " Now…Dinner."

oO

" So far Ben has been able to control his combustions whenever he is calm." Leo told Piper through a mouthful of food. He swallowed it audibly. " The problem is every time I ask him to do a demonstration his powers stop working. Which is counterproductive, obviously."

" Speaking of counterproductive, that recipe I gave Todd the other day for the restaurant? He accidentally boiled it."

Leo choked. " _What?_"

" Yep." Piper smiled flatly. " Good trick. He nearly served it to my customers, imagine that. Luckily Jane caught it, and they wasted a whole fish for that soup. I have to email him the recipe again later tonight because he also deleted it from his account. Plus, I told him I'd head over to the kitchens later tonight and teach him so that in case he loses it again he might be able to get it on his own."

Chris was rubbing his temples, for some reason not touching his plate.

" Chris?" Leo turned to his youngest. " Chris, are you okay buddy?"

" I have a headache." Chris moaned.

" Seven years old and headaches?" Piper felt her son's forehead. " He's not burning up."

" Do you want to go upstairs and lie down a little bit?" Leo asked.

" Okay." Chris got up from his seat. Wyatt looked at him, worried. Leo got up to grab a bottle of aspirin for his child.

Upstairs, Chris was remembering. Years worth of memories, revealing themselves in his head. These memories were not his own, but they felt like they belonged to him. Surprisingly, they did not hurt as much as one would expect. He just felt a dull ache in his skull. Some memories were frightening, some heartbreaking, but he did not understand these things and did not share in their pain. Instead he suddenly felt dizzy and tired, as if he had suddenly grown old and ill. He collapsed on the bed unhappily.

A jingle of orbs and a yell downstairs, and Wyatt materialized next to his bed.

" You okay bro?" He asked.

Chris nodded, grunting.

Wyatt was chewing loudly. " You don't look so hot."

" Hot?" Chris frowned. " What does that mean? Of course I'm not hot."

" It's a saying, silly." Wyatt sat down and leaned back, stretching out on the bed next to Chris. " It means you don't look okay."

" Oh." Chris frowned. " Aren't you gonna eat more?"

" Nah, not that hungry, really." Though Wyatt was still chewing. Chris saw he still had a bit of chicken in his hand. Seeing the chicken made his stomach grumble.

" Can I have a bit of that?" Chris asked.

" Sure." Wyatt peeled off half of it and handed it to his brother. They remained for a while like that, chewing on their respective chicken, staring at the ceiling in Wyatt's case while Chris closed his eyes and willed the dizziness to slow.

" Is it the videogame?" Wyatt suddenly asked.

Chris snorted. " Of course not. Duh."

" Then what is it?"

" I dunno. Just a headache." Chris rolled over.

" Well, I'm bored." Wyatt got up. " If it's really nothing then I'm gonna go play ragnarok."

" That's such a boring game."

" Is not. You just never picked the right skills."

" And all those Brazilian people trying to speak Brazilian to you."

" It's Portuguese. And it's not boring." Wyatt folded his arms. " Though if you insist I can turn the volume up on my playstation four."

Chris turned around. " Sorry Wy."

" Nah, I'm playing ragnarok." Wyatt left the room.

_"…Should I orb your skin off slice by slice, or should I melt your organs part by part?"_

_" …off, Wyatt, you b…"_

_" …Nah, I'm orbing your skin off. You can be all skinless and still be useful, eh?"_

" Ew." Chris shuddered, not entirely understanding. The wave of dizziness slowed and stilled. Chris got up just as his father came into his room.

" Sorry buddy," Leo apologized, " We ran out of aspirin in the first cupboard and your mom insisted she had another bottle stacked somewhere. We ended up finding it, but it took a long time."

" It's okay." Chris replied. " My headache's better now."

" You sure? Take it anyway," Leo suddenly stopped, staring at the piece. " It's too big. Hold on." He broke the aspirin piece a little more and gave Chris the large piece.

" Why did you break the aspirin?"

" Dosage, kiddo." Leo replied. " Come on, drink some water. There we go."

_" Sorry buddy, Dad has to go back, but I'll be there next time. Promise. Okay?"_

" Want to come downstairs and finish your dinner?"

" No, not hungry anymore." Chris shook his head.

" Okay then." Leo smiled.

oO

Coop was with the Elders. It was not something he particularly enjoyed, since the Elders were usually so engrossed in the future it was hard to reach them from the present. They definitely did not make good conversation, and the few times they do, they kind of get recycled because they are retiring.

This time it was something significant, however, and even Paige was there.

" Okay," The Charmed one demanded, " What did you call me up here for? I was in the middle of getting my charge home, for god's sake!"

" Why _did _you call them up here?" the young woman, who apparently was the reason for all this, inquired. " This is hardly something that concerns them."

" It does." The Elder next to her replied. " Coop, Paige, this is Aralyn."

" Pleased to meet you," Aralyn blinked, looking very bemused, " Though I would say, knowing your name does not really confuse me any less. Radelin, what is this?"

" You said you needed our help." Radelin, the Elder, replied. " We would recommend starting with them, or rather, with their families."

" Whoa, wait a minute," Coop held out his hand to slow the conversation down, " I don't know what's going on, but I gotta say, I'm totally with Miss…Aralyn? Here. I mean, who is she? No offense."

" Her identity is of no concern to you." Radelin replied.

" Of course it is." Aralyn snapped at the same time as Paige. Paige was speechless with surprise, while Aralyn continued, " As who they are is of concern to me. Do not mock my current state. I will not tolerate being played."

" We would suggest discretion on your part, for your own good." Another Elder told Aralyn. " As for who they are, Paige here is the youngest of the famous Charmed Ones—"

" Oh yes," Aralyn interrupted, " That does mean something to me. And Coop?" She blinked as she said his name, as if skeptical.

" He is a Cupid—"

" You are not serious."

" Hey," Coop protested, " What is that supposed to mean?"

" Hello?" Aralyn pointed out. " Cupid? Because last I heard Cupid is Eros, Eros is Cupid—they are kind of unique because there is only one of them? I have never heard of someone being _a _Cupid? Get my drift? And last I heard Cupids are also Greek, not Hispanic."

" Why do you say that I—"

" He is also the husband of the second Charmed sister, Phoebe Halliwell."

" Oh good grief." Aralyn ran her fingers through her hair in a gesture of distress. " What is the grand plan, then? I am assuming you wish to send me to the Charmed ones?"

" That is indeed our plan."

" They are powerful witches, and I heard that the second one has this blessed child."

" Piper?" Paige was confused for a moment, before remembering Prue. " Oh."

" The Twice-Blessed Witch." The Elder replied. " Indeed, she does. His name is Wyatt. He is also the chosen wielder of Excalibur."

" King Arthur? Not interested."

" Will someone please tell me what's going on here?" Paige demanded.

" We will get back to you once I convince your friends of their idiocy." Aralyn quipped before turning back to the Elders. " Bad idea. He hardly needs to be blessed the third time. Though just to clarify, I am not blessing anyone here, never blessed or once blessed or twice or what not."

" No, but one of the other children."

" You have a particular one."

" Not entirely." The Elder replied. " However, we must explain something to you." At this the Elders crowded around Aralyn and Coop and Paige were unable to hear anything they said.

Paige turned to Coop. " Did any of that make _any _sense to you?"

" Nope." Coop replied. " I'm just as lost as you."

" Okay." Paige nodded.

Suddenly, the Elders parted. The woman was gone.

" We called you two," Radelin told them, " To first introduce you to Aralyn, and also to cover for her when you can. She is here for a purpose, which cannot be disclosed at this time, but you must keep the rest of your family from suspecting her. Rest assured, she means no harm."

" Wait, what?" Coop blinked.

" You can't be serious." Paige growled. " What is going on here?"

" That cannot be disclosed at this moment." Radelin replied. " However, we promise she means no harm. She may be around, you may see her quite often. You must divert the others' attention from her. We cannot afford to make mistakes."

" Well, we can help you _not _make mistakes if you _tell _us _what is going on,_" Paige insisted.

The Elders were always persistent this way. " We cannot disclose it at this time." The group began to disband, leaving only Radelin with the two of them. " You may return to your previous duties." Then even she left.

Paige looked at Coop as they were left alone.

" What the _hell_?" She exclaimed. " This is ridiculous!"

Coop had to agree. He could just imagine the talk he would have with his wife. _Honey, she means no harm. How do I know? Um, actually, I don't, because the Elders didn't tell me anything except that. But she means no harm! Let's just eat our dinner._

" This will not go over well." He told Paige seriously.

Paige, more than a little annoyed, orbed back to whatever it was she was doing. _And don't forget Billie!_ He reminded himself. _She'll be just as ecstatic with that answer as Phoebe._

oO

In the middle of watching a movie, since it was a Friday, two demons randomly shimmered in and wounded Piper and Leo. Piper managed to blast one of them and Leo used a potion on the other, but Wyatt had to heal the two of them.

Wyatt had been a little unnerved, but healing his parents helped reassure him. Chris, however, had no such power, and he felt a dark well of despair forming in him as he stood helplessly to the side.

_It was always like this._ His thoughts whispered. _Always. It never ends. It killed Mom in the end, and drove Dad away from us…_He shifted uncomfortably.

_Other kids don't have this problem. Why should we? How come demons won't leave us alone?_

" Hey buddy," Leo bent down to inspect Chris, " You all right? You look upset."

" Of course he's upset, Leo." Piper looked at Chris. " It's okay, peanut, your brother healed us and we're alright now."

_And when Wyatt leaves, what will happen then?_ Chris squashed the thought. It did not make sense, anyway. He smiled at his father, earlier morose thoughts forgotten.

" Why don't you go upstairs and get ready for bed?"

" Aw, but Mom!" Wyatt complained.

" It's nearing your bedtime, Wyatt."

" No it isn't." Wyatt pouted.

With some necessary urging, the parents finally convinced the children to take their respective showers and go to bed. Wyatt and Chris both fell asleep instantly, but Chris was the one with the nightmares.

oO

" Billie, do me a favor and help me hang this up there?"

Billie waved the poster, tape and all, up to the wall. She pressed a finger to her lips. " No telling your mom."

Melinda giggled. " Mom would kill you."

Billie shared a grin with Phoebe's eldest. " Did you finish your homework for magic school?" She asked as the two headed out to the living room.

" I'm almost done. It's history so far so I can finish the rest later. Did Mom tell you if we're heading over to Aunt Piper's place afterwards?"

" I think so. Piper wanted me to help out around there, and I told her I would go over at noon. If your dad does not pick you up you can go to the manor."

" Cool, because I want to show Chris and Wyatt that picture I showed you that I drew for art class for Mrs. Helman."

" Well, if you don't head straight there we can always go there afterwards. It's Saturday, after all."

Suddenly, Coop materialized in the living room.

" Hi." Billie greeted. " Someone looks confused today."

" Oh no." Coop waved it off. " I'm not confused."

Billie cocked an eyebrow. " What did the Elders call you there for? And why did they call _you?_ I mean, don't Cupids report to some other authority? What, do the Elders control _everything?_"

" Being the husband of a Charmed One might have its special rules." Coop folded his arms. " And the Elders do not control everything."

" Yeah, right." Billie rolled her eyes. " So what did they want you for?"

" Well…" Coop hesitated.

" Well…?" Billie urged.

" I don't know."

Billie stared at him in disbelief. " You don't know."

" No."

" You're telling me that you went up there for six hours and you have no clue why they called you there."

Coop hesitated. " Y…yes."

Billie turned to Melinda. " Mel, turn around."

" What?"

" Turn around." Billie turned the girl around, and before the girl could spin back she gave Coop a resounding whack on the head.

" Ow." Coop rubbed his head. " Hey, it's not my fault!"

" You've got to be kidding me! You broke your promise so that you could waste six hours and you're telling me _nothing _came out of it? Do you have any idea how hard it was to reschedule the conference, apologize to all the coordinators, and find a suitable date which happens to be suitable for _everyone else except _me! And you're telling me that nothing happened?"

" Well, I didn't say nothing happened!"

" What then."

Coop told her, the best he could, of the details of the mess he and Paige went through while they were up there, as well as the new stranger, Aralyn.

" Wait, they set you up for an appointment today so they could tell you nothing?" Billie groaned. " I wish I could give them a whack too!"

" Haha." Coop replied. " Yeah, well, it's not every day that Elders set up an appointed time for you to go up there, I guess."

" No kidding." Billie snapped. " Normally they just call you at _their _convenience."

" This Aralyn though, she must be important."

" So? If she's working with the Elders she's no harm, right?"

" I guess you could put it that way."

" Well, what did she want?"

" I don't know. They mentioned Wyatt, and she said something about not blessing anyone as if the Elders had been confused, but I'm pulling at loose strings here, really."

" But six hours of nonsense? What did they do, have a banquet up there?"

" You know the time difference." Coop answered. " Where's Phoebe?"

" Still at work. Oh boy, would she be mad at you."

Melinda, who had listened to the entire conversation in relative silence, asked, " Why would Mommy be mad at you?"

" No big deal." Billie reassured her. " Your dad originally planned to take you and your sister out, Friday and all, but the Elders screwed that up for you. For all of us. Ugh, you're totally orbing me over to the conference."

Coop saluted. After all, if the Elders complain, he could complain right back, stating they had wasted time for their own benefits without any explanation.

" So are you going to call Piper and tell her what happened up there?"

" I'm leaving Paige to do that. What am I going to say? We stayed up there listening to them talk about things we can't make sense of and they refused to explain anything to us except to keep the identity of Aralyn secret? When we don't even know her identity? Paige will survive it better than me. Leo is so lucky he's a mortal again."

" Oh yeah, I need to ask Leo to help me buy wooden boards to help me fix the shelf. I'll have to wait until after magic school, then."

" Will do. I'm giving Phoebe a call, see where she's at. Hopefully she's starting home." Coop headed toward the phone.

" Alright. I'll see you in a bit Melinda."

" Where are you going?" Coop asked, even as the phone rang.

" She's getting fruit. We ran out this afternoon."

" You could wait until tomorrow."

" Tomorrow I'm at the manor."

" Oh, right. Okay then."

" See you guys later!"

Billie left. Coop dialed the number. _Yep. Phoebe will give me a tongue-lashing._ He steeled himself for it.


	2. Chapter 2

From Beyond the Clouds

Chapter 2

Out of the boys, Chris was Billie's favorite. Smart, articulate, and in many ways wiser than his older brother, Chris was the epitome of an ideal son. He was happy, but in a more serene kind of way than his brother, who had a tendency to become overly excited. He had less magic than his brother, who was able to heal back when he could not even walk, but Chris depended more on shrewdness and craftiness to achieve his ends.

Normally such qualities would annoy Billie, but Chris was also very trusting and honest. Two characteristics, which, for some reason, seemed always to turn the corners of his mother's lips down. As Billie got older she had learned to read the sisters as well as other people, and she knew that somehow she struck a chord. Billie never mentioned it after the fifth time, but it made her wonder if the eldest Charmed one knew something about what Chris would become. She saw nothing wrong with Chris, so she found it hard to imagine why Piper would be so displeased whenever Billie said it.

Nevertheless, Chris adored his brother, and Billie adored Chris. She sometimes found Wyatt to be too unfairly powerful in comparison to his brother, and favored the younger more.

Not to say that Wyatt was not sweet too. As she entered the manor, Wyatt was actually the first to greet her.

" Hey Billie!" The boy beamed at her. He had his bookbag on already. Behind him, Chris hurried to the door when he heard Billie's name.

" Billie!" Chris laughed.

" Hey you two!" Billie grinned. " Getting ready for magic school?"

" Yep!"

" Boys, come over here, Piper, hand me my bag? Oh, hi Billie. What are you doing here?"

" I called her here."

" Oh. Really? What for?"

" Help out. You go to magic school."

" You sure?"

Piper glared at Leo. Leo laughed.

" Okay, okay," He turned to the boys. " Alright guys, let's go."

Wyatt and Chris each grabbed Leo's hand.

" Bye Billie! Bye Mom!" Chris waved.

" Bye guys!" Billie laughed. The orbs carried the three away.

Piper smiled at Billie.

" Well?" Billie asked. " I'm here. What's up?"

" Well, I need your help to clean up the attic." Piper replied. " I'd ask Paige or Phoebe, but, well, you answered the phone, so."

" Sure. No problem. Whoa. What happened to the couch?"

" Demons, as usual. Is it just me or are they getting more powerful?"

" I don't know. Seems the same to me." Billie followed Piper up the attic. " What happened to the attic this time?"

" Oh, nothing. Just sorting through stuff, you know? Cleaning? Because after a while the dust and junk collects. Plus the boys experiment around and they make some potions they don't really need."

" Cool." Billie gave the Book of Shadows a gentle slap as she passed by. " Boy do I miss this thing. You think I should write one of my own?"

" Sure. Why not?"

" Dunno. What am I gonna write?"

" Well, you do have a lot to share with future generations." Piper pointed out. " I mean you and your sister—lots of things to tell there."

" But the Triad is dead."

" Oh please. If there's anything I learned about demons and such, it's that they always pop back to harass us again."

" Joy."

The phone suddenly rang downstairs.

" Ooh!" Piper turned. " You'll be okay up here?"

" Sure, I'll be fine."

" Okay." The sister went downstairs to pick up the phone.

Billie picked up a dusty box and carried it over to the middle of the room. The lid of the cardboard box fell open and she caught sight of a ragged photo.

" Huh?" Billie set the box on the ground and picked up the photo, breathing heavily for a moment since the box was heavy. " I don't remember this."

The photo showed Piper, Phoebe, and Paige who was holding Wyatt, while the man Billie remembered was Chris from the future stood behind them on the couch. It was a family photo, without Leo, who might have been the one who took it.

Turning the photo over, Billie saw the words _" Our New Whitelighter. October 2004"_

Baffled, Billie tried to remember if the man was Chris.

" He's the splitting image of Piper though…" Billie looked into the box, but there was nothing other than a bunch of potions ingredients, scraps of paper of old spells, and a rusty dagger.

Piper came up.

" You okay?" she asked, noting Billie was bending over a box.

" Yeah," Billie turned around. " Did Chris come back from the future more than once?"

Again the corners of Piper's mouth turned inadvertently down as she took in the photo Billie lifted for her to see.

" Yes." Piper finally answered after a long hesitation. " And since you're family, practically," She paused again.

" What happened?" Billie asked. " Why does this say 'Our Whitelighter'?"

" It's a long story." Piper replied softly.

oO

" In eighteen seventy-six Satsu Tsukiyome defeated the Monsoon demons through what is now known as the Fronting Spell. The Fronting spell consists of looping several verses of spells together in a specific pattern, done by one person while constantly freezing time. This spell is very powerful—in fact, Tsukiyome, by defeating the Monsoon demon, caused the entire ground the province was on to flip inside out—essentially burying the village and all its inhabitants…"

Wyatt yawned and wished Chris was his twin instead of his younger brother so at least he would be in the same class with him. Having a younger brother had its perks—Chris revered Wyatt so he did everything Wyatt told him to do; a twin would not necessarily do the same. But a twin would sit next to him to confuse the teachers and probably play hangman with him, or tic-tac-toe, so he would not fall asleep listening to the teacher drone about the other side of the world.

_Chris's birthday is in a few weeks._ Wyatt thought absently, mind mellowed by the boring history. Wyatt's birthday had come first, so the ten-year-old could pretend, for the moment, that he was three years older than his brother. But pretty soon Chris will catch up. He wondered what to get him for his birthday. Maybe a special spell, like last year?

" …is only done under extreme circumstances. This spell was used fairly recently, in the twentieth century in France. It can only be incanted in French…"

A burst of distress escaped through their bond. Wyatt and Chris had always been able to sense each other's feelings and emotions. When they were younger, Wyatt had even been able to sense Chris's very thoughts, but that ability died a little bit until he could only hear projections. Leo had explained that since everyone has a tendency to keep their thoughts to themselves, Wyatt had been unable to hear Chris's thoughts when he got older, but when they were younger Chris did not know how to protect his thoughts so Wyatt was able to hear.

Blinking the tiredness out of his mind, Wyatt reached inquiringly through their bond. There was nothing at magic school that could harm either of them, and the distress Wyatt sensed was not outright fear—it seemed more like a feeling Chris had when once Wyatt tickled him mercilessly and it had become unbearable. Chris had started crying, and Piper gave Wyatt a scolding. The first time Wyatt got the lecture that he must protect his brother, and certainly not the last.

_You okay?_ He projected through their bond.

There was a long silence, though the distress did ease a little bit. He wondered why Chris was hesitating. Perhaps to answer a question? That might be it.

_Yeah._ Chris projected back. _Why?_

_Felt you get nervous._ Wyatt frowned. _What's wrong?_

_Nothing._ And the distress earlier had entirely faded. _Dunno. May be just shivers._

Wyatt displayed the picture of himself cocking an eyebrow—something he was never able to do in real life. A flare of amusement answered him. He sensed Chris's attention turn from him and turned back to the teacher's lecture.

" So, who can tell me what this symbol means?"

oO

Chris was very confused.

As soon as his teacher had said " In the past—" He had been swamped by many disconnected memories that flew by so fast he could not even tell what was there. They were flashings of images, not painful, but a little annoying, because he could not concentrate past these images to focus on what the teacher was saying. With each image was an emotion, very faint and almost inconspicuous—joy, love, anger, hatred, despair, and fear. Fear was in many of them, and Chris was beginning to get upset.

And then Wyatt had pulled him out of it.

Shaking his head, Chris had hesitated because as soon as Wyatt asked, the feeling was gone as if it had never been there. It seemed silly, almost, that he had been annoyed at the time.

So he told Wyatt nothing was wrong.

The class ended without a hitch, and following that was lunch, so Chris went to his brother's classroom so they could head out to eat together. There were several young fairies flying about in the yard, and Chris smiled at them happily in greeting. They waved at him enthusiastically. The first time Chris met them he had cried out, quite loudly, how _"wonderfully pretty"_ they were, inciting his brother to make fun of him for sounding like a girl. Chris had retorted back that Wyatt had implied they were not pretty. The fairies, amused by this exchange, immediately took a liking to the both of them. Afterwards Chris always made sure he said hi to them every time he passed the yard, and the fairies became good friends with him and eventually Wyatt, who at first thought Chris was mental for being so meticulous about this but had still been more polite to the little beings than most of the other boys.

" Hey!" Chris went up to them. " I have no idea what Mom made for us, so give me a sec."

" Another sandwich, duh." Wyatt sat down next to Chris.

The fairies asked how class was.

" Boring." Wyatt grumbled.

" Yeah." Chris agreed.

" They talked about spells historical witches used." Wyatt frowned. " I hate history."

The fairies remarked that Chris's pallor was very bad that day. Chris had always been the paler of the two, but he looked downright ghastly for a seven-year-old, and asked if he was sick because if he was he should go home.

" I don't look that bad!" Chris protested.

" Haha, Chris looks like a ghost!" Wyatt laughed.

" Do not!" Chris elbowed his brother lightly.

The fairies pointed out that because they deal with flowers they were able to see a larger range of light and color, so even if Wyatt and Chris cannot tell that Chris looks bad they could and asked if Chris was feeling like a ghost because he certainly looked like one.

" What does being a ghost feel like?" Chris asked.

" Maybe half of us?" Wyatt suggested, equally confused. " We're half whitelighter."

The fairies vehemently declared that feeling like a ghost would be much worse than feeling like a whitelighter. They then described what a flower feels like when it is wilting, and not from old age.

" I don't feel dry and wrinkly." Chris wrinkled his nose. " And I don't think ghosts would feel that way…I feel normal. I don't know what you're talking about, no offense."

The fairies said that Chris looked faded. Another swarm of memories hit Chris. Most of them was in black and white. He saw flashes of his mother, his father, his father looking a little sick, and they were in a black and white movie. He felt something strange also. It was resignation, but he did not recognize it because as a seven-year-old Chris had never needed to feel so resigned before. Then he remembered Aunt Phoebe hugging him…but why was Aunt Phoebe shorter than him? Then his dad, crying at his bedside. His chest hurt. His dad was crying? Why was his dad crying?

" Hey!" Wyatt tapped Chris on the shoulder. " You do look pale. You okay, bro?"

The feeling was gone again. Chris thought his head was stuffed with wool.

" I don't know." His voice sounded distant. He cleared his throat. " I think I am."

Wyatt looked at him in concern. The fairies suggested they go to their father.

" Yeah, I'm with them." Wyatt got up. " Come on Chris, maybe Dad will send both of us home!"

" No he won't!" His voice still sounded faint, even though Chris could not feel anything wrong with him. " He'll make you stay."

Wyatt fidgeted. He did not want to go through the rest of the day alone!

The fairies scolded Wyatt and told him that he had to take care of his brother and that his brother looked like weeds were sucking the life out of him and they would personally drag Chris to his father if Wyatt does not do it so Wyatt might as well orb Chris over as it would put less strain on the little one.

" Who were they calling little?" Wyatt muttered when they materialized outside Leo's office. He knocked on the door. " Dad?"

" I feel fine though." Chris protested, though his weak voice gave it away even though Chris was unaware.

Wyatt glanced at Chris. " You sound bad." He noted. Leo opened the door.

" Hey guys," Their father greeted. " What's up? Chris? Are you okay?"

oO

" We welcome you, Living Maiden." The seer greeted. " We rejoice at your return."

The Living Maiden, who the Elders had called Aralyn, grimaced at this. " What is there to rejoice about? I am not here to help you."

The seer merely bowed.

" You think sweetening me up would make me choose one of you? Note that I am here for a younger one. You will not get such power."

" And I seek none."

Aralyn chuckled. " So you say. I see that I have friends here I did not know of. Are all demons like you, or are you peculiar simply because you can see into the past and future?"

" All of my kin have been raised to honor the Great Mother." The seer replied.

" Oh no." Aralyn exclaimed in dismay. " One of his descendants came here too? And sired all of you? I thought my son was not as drowish as others."

The seer said nothing to that.

" Just how many of these descendants do I have?" Aralyn went on. " I might as well call them mine, as you all insist on calling me your Great Mother even though Shaun was adopted. You know what bothers me? The last ten worlds I went to? I chose them specifically because I knew one of his—well, my, descendants, went there and had mingled. All of those sired happened to be either dark, obnoxious, evil, chaotic, or some combination of them all. I have only gone to one world so far where the descendants even remotely resembled Shaun as I knew him and as I heard of him after I died. This is a real blow to my maternal ego, mind you. I would like to think my descendants had a little more variety."

" The appearance of magic," The seer replied, " Caused great unbalance in the beginning. As our ancestors told us, the descendant of Shaun the Half-Drow, son of the Living Maiden, came to our world and created demons to restore that balance."

" Oh! That makes me feel much better. I really do not care for individual worlds, evil or good, but I am all for balance, really. That explains a lot of things, actually. But mind you, just because you call me Great Mother, it does not necessarily mean I will help you in any fashion. And even if I do choose a demon, do not get too overjoyed. Picking a demon chosen one does not equal you tilting the balance in any way. The demon might not even be in this realm, unless, of course, he or she wants to destroy this world, and I shall not weep over that. There are plenty of worlds just like yours. Now, the Elders were not much help. You do know I went to the Elders first."

" Yes." The seer replied. " Perhaps in hopes of choosing good over evil?" She said this without any hint of accusation.

" Oh no. I come from higher than they are, and they just happened to be closer and more convenient as the first stop." Aralyn shrugged. " They never mentioned any descendants, but they seemed to know me well. They harassed the Charmed Ones, I think, to helping me."

" The Charmed Ones." The seer repeated.

" Yes, the Charmed Ones." Aralyn folded her arms. " I think they were implying towards one child in particular. Chris Halliwell? Wyatt Halliwell? Apparently Chris came back from the future?"

" Yes." The seer did not elaborate.

Aralyn, tired of waiting, huffed. " Well, then, take advantage of my diminished powers. If you will not tell me of what transpired, I suppose I shall do without. I do not know about how time travel around here. I did not know it existed, but I imagine if Chris came from the future he must have caused great havoc if you are glaring at me like that."

The seer instantly lowered her eyes humbly. " He was responsible for the greatest rate of demon vanquishing in the history of the Charmed Ones, Great Mother."

" Oh really? A demon-hunting marathon? I see. Well, I suppose one would get annoyed at that. Very well, we shall not speak of him any more. If I need information, even the Elders will not dare challenge my wrath, as much as I am beginning to dislike their temperaments. As you are here, what can you do for me?"

" I can introduce you to some of our prodigies." The seer replied. " You may have to, however, show them your staff."

" Oh?"

" They may not recognize you." The seer bowed respectfully.

Aralyn hesitated for a long time.

" Oh very well." She summoned her staff. " I at least have enough power to spare to show off. Vicious beings, are you not, demon? Hurry along! I need to scout the whole realm and more."

oO

" Oh yeah," Coop reminded the man as he gazed lovingly at his date, " Don't forget to try to kiss her this time, yeah?"

Phoebe was still upset, but no longer at him. He could feel she was distracted, and sighed mentally. The man had kissed his date, and things seemed to be going well, so Coop figured he could go and see what his wife was up to at Bay Mirror.

Phoebe already sensed him coming, so she was not startled when he materialized in her office.

" Hey," She greeted absently while taking some papers out the door, " Be right back."

" Okay." Coop sat down. He heard the whirring of the Xerox machine and the beeps as Phoebe pressed the buttons. Her boss said something to her, and Phoebe replied with a " Yes, certainly," Before coming back with a larger stack of papers.

" I was wondering if you want to go to lunch together?" Coop offered.

" Sure." Phoebe shrugged. " Where do you want to go?"

" Really?"

" Yeah. Look, I'm not mad at you. I mean, it's not your fault, you couldn't have known. But I was really looking forward to yesterday night and having an actual family night together for the first time in months. Next Friday I have a meeting in the evening. Come on. But lunch would make me feel better, and I can't concentrate today anyway."

Coop smiled. " Alright. Chinese?"

" Sure. Let me grab my coat and bag." Phoebe went to the wardrobe to fetch both. " Okay, let's go."

" Okay." Coop walked out of the office with her. Phoebe said goodbye to several of her colleagues, promising to help them when she gets back. They went out of the building into the open air, the sky clear and high and the wind a dancing comfort. Coop looked at Phoebe and wondered, not for the first time, how he had managed to survive so long without her. It led to the question, however, of how he was to survive without her again. Because one day Phoebe will die, but Coop would not necessarily follow her.

What will he do then?

The two stopped at the edge of the sidewalks as the cars drove past.

" What time is it?" Phoebe asked.

" 11:32."

" Okay, the kids are probably having lunch." Phoebe nodded. " And Billie's over at Piper's, seriously, I should stop working on Saturdays."

" Yeah." Coop grinned at her. He looked across the street to read the light and see if it showed any sign of changing anytime soon.

It flicked, and Coop crossed the street with his wife. They reached the other side and started to head to the Chinese restaurant.

And then he saw her.

San Francisco had plenty of strange people, but very few walk around with staffs. Nevertheless, Aralyn managed to make it look like she was just bringing a prop to a play, the way she swung it around as if it really meant nothing to her. The ornate staff, white laced with green and gold, pulsed with magic even Coop could feel, all the way on the other side of the street. The innocents around them felt and suspected nothing, but Coop was astounded because normally individuals carried such possessions with more dignity.

She passed by him without acknowledging him, though Coop felt her turn her head a little on purpose, as if to let him know she knew he was there. She was following another woman dressed in black, who turned back once in a while to gesture at her, with a hint of awe and respect that was not common among normal innocents. The two made an odd pair—Aralyn was dressed in a pale green dress fit for the weather and society, while the other—

_Is that a demon?_ Coop froze. Indeed, only demons could give off that cold evil aura he felt as the woman passed him. _Why is Aralyn following a demon? After she spoke with Elders?_

" Coop?" Phoebe turned to him. " Coop, you alright?"

" Uh…" Coop turned to his wife, who was looking at him in concern. " Phoebe? I thought I was not gonna get any more confused about this but…"

oO

Leo felt his son's forehead. " You do look unwell, son." He noted in worry.

" I don't feel anything!" Chris insisted, but his eyes were a little glassy and his voice faint.

" Well, if you want I can try to heal you." Wyatt offered.

" Let's see if that works." Leo bit his lip. _If it doesn't there's a problem._

Wyatt held out his hands over Chris. Leo was struck with the memory of a much older Chris, gasping for breath on the bed, and his own glowing hands, trying, trying to seal the wound that Gideon—

Chris suddenly stopped breathing. The silence was audible. Leo snapped out of his memories when horror stabbed his heart, the horror that perhaps it will happen all over again and he will never have the comfort of knowing Chris was still around, in a new form.

" Chris?" Wyatt blinked, not nearly as alarmed as his father, but very bemused.

Chris breathed in. It was not one of those long gasps that one takes after holding a breath for very long. It seemed he had never stopped breathing.

Leo's heart stopped when his youngest looked up and asked, " Daddy, why are you crying?"

" Huh?" Wyatt blinked. " What are you talking about? Dad wasn't crying!" He looked up at Leo. " And you still look like someone stabbed you in the gut. Your face is all pale."

Chris stopped breathing again, but some intuition was telling Leo that something was going on in Chris's mind, something very similar to what was going on in Leo's mind as soon as Wyatt said those awful words. _Stabbed in the gut. Stabbed in the gut…but Chris must also be remembering. Those were trigger words. You learned them back in med school. Trigger words starts—_

" We should send you home." Leo collected himself and turned to Wyatt. " Wyatt, go back to class. I'll have Paige orb your brother back."

" Okay." Wyatt looked at his brother. He was worried too. " What happened? How did you get sick? And how come I couldn't heal you?" He asked. Chris started breathing again.

" I don't know!" Chris shrugged. He looked as if he did not know what happened. " It's not like I did this on purpose."

" Paige?" Leo called. " Paige, I need you here for a second?"

A jingle of orbs carried Paige down to the office.

" Hey, what's up?" She asked.

" Can you do me a favor and take Chris home?" Leo asked. " Chris is kind of sick."

" Why don't you just heal him?"

" Can't." Leo shrugged. " Maybe it's just the Elders who wouldn't let Wyatt's powers work." He did not voice his true fears since both boys were there.

" Okay," Paige nodded, " Let's go kiddo." She reached out and Chris took her hand. They disappeared in a jingle of orbs.

Wyatt hesitated. " You really think it's the Elders?" He asked.

" Did you sense anything from Chris earlier?" Leo asked.

" Yeah." Wyatt looked at his father, eyes wide. " Several times. He was feeling really upset about something, along with some weird feelings in the back."

" Do you know what caused them?"

His son shrugged. " Dunno." Wyatt was as worried as his father. " For a moment there I felt a pain in my side here," He gestured to the place that made Leo blanch.

_You either…_

" Go to class." Leo told Wyatt gently.

" Is he gonna be alright?"

" Of course he will. He'll probably be better once your mom takes care of him." Leo sat back behind his desk. " See you later."

" Okay Dad. Bye!" Wyatt opened the door and slipped out.

Leo leaned back and wished he could have so much faith in words as Wyatt did now. Reassuring was all it took to ease the child's fears. The boy did not sense the unease Leo tried to mask. He will not, probably, for a long time to come.

_Not in front of the boys._ Experience had taught Leo that some things could wait, even if he could not. _I have to talk to Piper tonight._

oO

" She was with a _demon?_" Phoebe exclaimed, keeping her voice low so no one would hear. " That makes no sense! Why would the Elders want to help her then? Could it be that they are all somehow like Gideon?"

" Maybe they don't know."

" Now they ought to though, right? I mean, she was walking around in broad daylight. And she didn't even try to avoid you."

" I'm just all confused right now." Coop rubbed his head. " They told us to keep trusting her, basically, so you wouldn't interfere with whatever plans they have. I guess maybe they knew she would associate with demons?"

" Well, we never know. Maybe she's a spy of some sort."

" You think demons would fall for that? Did you see how she was dressed?"

" Well, demons don't necessarily have to go for the goth look." Phoebe shrugged. " Maybe they think she's a spy too."

" We'd be getting a little ahead of ourselves here."

" Okay, well, in any case I think we should keep an eye on her."

" That's probably exactly what the Elders don't want you to do."

" I thought you didn't know what the Elders wanted."

" I don't. I'm just guessing here."

" Well, I don't care what the Elders want. We're keeping an eye on her. Maybe you and Paige could set up some kind of schedule. You watch her today, she watches her tomorrow, or cast a spell on her. That's better. Cast a spell on her so that she doesn't know, and we can keep track of her somehow. I'll head over to the manor after work and look it up in the Book of Shadows."

" Okay. Let's stop talking about that. Oh there, that one's ours, I think." Coop watched the waiter approach them.

" Okay, enjoy your meal!" The waiter smiled, then left.

" He speaks good English." Phoebe laughed. " Wow, smells so good.

They finished lunch more quickly than normal. Phoebe went back to work, and Coop went to Paige.

" He's sick," Paige was telling Piper in the attic, " Leo says Wyatt probably won't be able to heal him, personal gain and all."

" Oh honey," Piper felt Chris's head. " Hey Coop."

" Hey," Coop moved over to stand behind Piper, " Yeah, you look like hell, Chris—"

Paige whacked him on the arm, hard. " Language!" She hissed.

" Sorry!" Coop gulped.

" I'm a little tired, but I don't feel weird." Chris protested. " And Wyatt's all alone in magic school."

" He has his friends." Piper pointed out. " And you sound tired, yeah. How about you go to the room, get in bed, and Mommy will make you some soup, okay?"

" Okay." Chris waved goodbye to Coop, who, not for the first time, felt really amused at how polite the child was. As soon as the boy was gone, Piper turned to Paige.

" Alright, spill. It's not personal gain, is it?"

" Well, I don't think Leo believes it. He probably only said it because the boys were there."

" Then what is it?"

" I don't know. We didn't get a chance to discuss alone. The most important thing at the time was to get Chris home."

" Yeah, you go make that soup. I'll go with Chris—Coop, what are you doing here?"

" Need to talk to you alone, Paige." Coop replied uneasily.

" Well, I'll be downstairs." Piper was not especially interested in what her sister and brother-in-law had to talk. Her son was sick and she was going to do what it takes to get him better. " Call if you need anything."

" Okay," Paige turned to Coop. " Now, what is it?"

Coop frowned. " It's that Aralyn." He began.


	3. Chapter 3

From Beyond the Clouds

Chapter 3

As Billie came out of the bathroom she was surprised to see Piper in the kitchen all of the sudden.

" Hungry?" She guessed.

" No." Piper looked unhappy. " Chris. He's sick, and Leo sent him home."

" Oh." Billie doubted she would ever think of Chris the same way again. There was a new respect for him, for what he will become, and a fear that wormed into her heart when Piper informed her Chris was ill.

_Stabbed in the gut._ She thought. _And then the police came…what was it like?_ She did not want to know.

" Okay, I'll go up and continue to clean up."

" Nah, take a break. Coop and Paige are up there and I think they want to discuss something alone. Angels." Piper took out the cutting board.

" How come Wyatt didn't heal him?" Billie asked as she headed out of the kitchen. At Piper's silence she turned back. Piper's expression was grim.

" Okay…do you want me to check the Book of Shadows later on?"

" If it was urgent I think Leo would have come with him." Piper replied. " Obviously it's not that serious. We might simply be overreacting."

Perfectly possible, given the circumstances. Billie nodded in acknowledgement.

She heard a demon shimmer in behind her. So did Piper.

" Oh for crying out loud, I'm trying to make my son some soup here!" Piper blasted the demon without further fuss.

Billie turned back. " At least that one was easy."

" Hm." Piper was silent.

Billie sat down. " Piper, Chris is gonna be okay."

" I know. Of course he'll be okay. I mean, kids get sick all the time, so,"

Billie smiled sadly. " Things have changed, Piper."

" I know, I know." Piper smiled at Billie. " I'm just a mom, you know?"

Billie laughed. " Well, how about this. I go up and stay with Chris after asking Paige to look in the book, alright?"

" Okay." Piper grinned. " Thanks a lot, Billie."

" No problem." Billie headed out of the kitchen.

Upstairs Paige was glaring at Coop, who wondered why everyone seems to think these events were his doing.

" Demon? You sure? Because there are plenty of people who wear black who are perfectly magic-less, let alone demons."

" I'm pretty sure she was a demon."

" Who, Aralyn?"

" No, the one she was following. Aralyn I'm not sure."

" Well then what now?"

" Well, Phoebe and I were thinking maybe we can use a spell?"

" Spell?" Billie walked into the attic. " For what?"

" Oh, nothing really. What's up? What are you doing here?" Paige asked.

" Piper called me over to help clean up. Say, she also wants you to look in the book for any reason Chris might be sick?"

" Sure, if I knew what to look for…why don't you go over to Chris and ask what he's feeling?"

" Okay." Billie gave Paige a thumbs-up. She left the room.

" Okay," Paige waved her hand up in the air. " I guess I'll have to stick around. Hopefully my charge wouldn't need me in the next few hours because I have to find two spells at once."

" I'll go up there, ask them what's wrong with Chris." Coop orbed away.

Chris was already in bed, looking as pale and worn as a child never should be.

" Hey, kiddo," Billie sat down next to the boy's bed. " How ya feelin'?"

" Okay." Chris looked sad. " How are you?"

" I'm good. I'm good, but you should be more worried about how _you're _feeling now.

Chris swallowed. " I'm scared, Billie."

Billie was silent for a moment. " What are you scared for, huh, buddy?"

" I keep seeing things." Tears escaped Chris's eyes. By now even his childish mind could not ignore that something was going terribly wrong. " I don't know what they are, they're so fast, but they're scary!"

Billie was confused for a moment. Did Chris have the power of premonition? But she had just heard the old Chris's story…

" Oh Chris," Billie reached over and hugged Chris. " It's going to be okay, alright champ? Your parents and aunts will fix this for you."

Even so, Chris's body trembled like a leaf. Billie held him for a moment.

" Alright, I'll go talk to your Aunt Paige, alright?" Billie let go of him. " You'll be okay here alone for a moment?"

" Yeah." Chris summoned a smile.

Billie smiled back. " I'll be right back."

oO

The demons crowded around the bar.

" The Great Mother has come!" Murmurs continued about it. So far no one has seen her except the seer.

" What is she here for?" A young demon asked.

" What else is she here for, you imbecile!" One snapped at him. "But it's definitely one of us."

" You don't know that. Else why would the seer be so meticulous about revealing as little information as possible about—"

" Would you shut up?" Yet another demon interrupted. " She could be here, listening in!"

More growls and mutters followed this.

" But why that second youngster?" The young demon persisted. " What's so special about him? Sure, he killed a good number of us as an adult, but that's no comparison to Wyatt."

" She's not here for Wyatt. She made that clear." A more dignified demoness replied calmly. " She has a different criteria, and what that criteria is none of us must question. Recall, she is the reason for our very existence, and until she fulfills her last task she has the power to be our downfall"

" Well, you can rest assured she won't look for someone _good._"

" She won't look for someone _evil _either." The dignified demoness replied. " She is more neutral than those neutral in this world. She will find the second one a good candidate."

" Why? Because he's good?"

" I just said she was neutral!" The demoness lost her temper slightly, and with a flick of her wrist the demon combusted.

The demons were silent.

" Now, what the Living Maiden wants we cannot be certain of, but we know the Elders plan. They made that clear. And the second son…"

" The second son? He ain't got no magic!"

" It is not magic she is after." Another demon answered.

" Yes." The she-demon nodded. " And now that youngster is getting memories of his old life."

" We have to kill him." One realized. " She will not be pleased, but we have to kill him."

" Yes. He is a threat to us all."

" Kill the younger Halliwell? How are we going to get past the Charmed Ones?"

" They are no longer living together."

" What about the Twice-Blessed?"

The demoness smiled again. " We can use current circumstances to our advantage."

" What current circumstances?"

Again the smile, but this time the she-demon did not say anything.

oO

Coop went from the Elders to Leo's office in a very bad mood.

Needless to say the Elders did not tell him anything, short of mentioning, so vaguely that Coop did not even catch it, that had Chris not died he would not have this complication.

_What on earth is that supposed to mean?_ Coop wondered, and having decided Piper had enough to worry about at the moment, chose to ask the father instead.

Leo was talking to someone through a seashell, which he held to his ear like a phone. Coop decided that now that he thought about it, it did seem rather comical, lifting that big heavy thing and talking into it. Leo gestured at him to say he would be with him in a minute, so Coop sat down and made himself comfortable.

" Yes, we need silkworm powder. I understand that Lilah talked to you last week? Yes. That's right. She's not here today, but I'd like to know if it's possible for you to get it here two days early? Yes, several students here reported that they might need it from the pharmacy. Yes, thank you. No, we do not need more blessed papyrus. Really? Okay, I guess we'll take forty dozen of those then. Alright, thank you very much." The seashell glowed and pulsed, signaling the end of the connection.

" Hey Coop. What can I do for you? Your kids are fine."

" No kidding. I'm here for your kid."

" Chris?" Leo's grinning demeanor gave way to paternal concern. " What's wrong?"

" I went up to the Elders."

" And?"

" And they didn't tell me much. Must be some kind of fad these days—'What can we do to piss off the charmed ones and their associates? Oh, I know! Tell them there's something we know and refuse to tell them what it is!' But they did mention about Chris dying once? And that it was causing complications?"

Leo at first looked like he did not hear a word Coop just said. Then he cursed. Loudly.

After that Coop waited for Leo to elaborate, but Leo was silent.

" Okay, you cursed. Mind telling me what this is?"

Leo rubbed his forehead, and to Coop's shock, started sobbing.

" Whoa, whoa, hey man," Coop was dumbstruck and completely at loss as to what to do. _What is going on?_

Then, as soon as Leo started crying, he stopped, wiping at his face furiously. " I'm getting Wyatt. You have to orb me outta here."

" To where?"

" The manor!"

" Why?"

" Because!" Leo was starting to head out.

" Wait a minute, wait, what's going on? Hey, wait! I'm part of the family too, I think I have the right to know!"

" I didn't say you didn't!" Leo turned back. " But I'll explain it later. I'm pulling Wyatt out of class—school's almost over anyway, and I gotta get to Chris."

" Is it serious? Is Chris going to die or something?"

" No he _won't!_" Leo snapped at Coop, who froze, startled. Leo rubbed his face in despair.

" Not this time." He said quietly. Coop decided it was better to leave it be for now.

oO

" Wyatt had powers from the womb?"

Piper froze as she straightened out the sheets. " What, peanut?"

There was an expression she had never seen on her son before, an expression of despair and fear. Chris repeated, " Did Wyatt have powers from the womb?"

_From the womb? Wyatt had powers from the womb? This is unbelievable! It's not like I have an inferiority complex with him already! Thank you!_

Piper frowned, dread collecting in her stomach. " Why do you ask that, honey?"

" I remember saying that." Chris reached up to rub his temple. " I don't remember when I said that. But my neck hurt and you were pregnant again."

Piper did not know what to say.

Chris was not eating his soup. " Mommy, how come I don't have any powers?"

" Of course you have powers. You wouldn't be in magic school otherwise."

" Yeah, but how come Wyatt gets to have all that power and I don't?" Chris's bottom lip quivered and tears spilled from his eyes. " He keeps mocking me about it, and whenever he bullies me I can't do anything because he's the one that's twice-blessed."

Piper closed her eyes. She had paid special attention to how her sons interacted over the years and was fairly certain that first of all, Chris never begrudged his older brother for being more powerful, and second, Wyatt _never _did anything to hurt his brother. Not on purpose, anyway. There were times when Wyatt did not foresee the harm, but those were little things—

" Mommy…" Chris called, " Mommy?"

Piper blinked back to reality. Chris was shivering, his eyes still holding fear, but also confusion.

" Mommy, what's happening?" Her son asked, afraid. " How come I'm remembering all this?"

Piper pulled her child into a hug. " It's okay baby, everything will be alright."

_Oh my god, he's remembering…_

Upstairs Billie was going through the magic book with Paige. She had come down to Chris to find Piper already taking care of him, so she went back up.

" It would be better if we could somehow split the book so we don't have to crane our necks."

" You take the left side and I'll take the right side."

" Good call."

Leo, Coop, and Wyatt materialized in front of them.

" Hey," Paige looked at Coop, " What did they say?"

Coop did not have to answer. Leo immediately left the room.

Wyatt turned to his aunt. " What's wrong with Dad?"

" Uh-oh." Billie left Paige's side while Paige cursed.

" Okay." Coop started, but Paige glanced pointedly at Wyatt, who did not see because he had turned around to look at his uncle. So he changed the direction his words were going. " Wyatt, why don't you go downstairs? Your aunt and I need to talk."

" Is this about my brother?" Wyatt asked. " What's wrong with him?"

" No, it's not about your brother. It's about up there." Coop pointed. " Okay? I'll go downstairs and join you in a second."

Wyatt looked like he wanted to argue, but Paige pressed, " Thanks Wyatt."

Decidedly unhappy about this, Wyatt left the room.

Once he made sure Wyatt could not hear, Coop turned around to face Paige, arms crossed.

" What's going on? You seem to know about this."

Paige opened her mouth, but how was she going to tell Coop this?

_I am going to kill you, Phoebe._ She thought darkly. _Assuming, of course, that your husband doesn't kill you first for keeping this from him. Oh no…I never told Henry either…darn it!_

oO

" Barbas originally had the power to invoke fear, and fear has a tendency to blind." The demoness told her new minions. " What we need is a way to install fear in the family so that they make a grave mistake. Hopefully, one that draws them away from Chris."

" They stick to Chris like glue though, Venas. Ever since the old one died, they, especially the father, never let the child out of their sights."

" Ah, yes, but parents are always doubting their methods. It's what they do." The demoness, now known as Venas, pointed out. " They would be afraid that they are cuddling him too closely, and while he is receiving memories of his past life, they would find reason to leave him in order to find a cure."

" So what do we do? Cast a spell so they start doubting themselves?"

" No. Many demons tried spells before. Spells take effect fast, but they are also much easier to remove. No, we have to slowly weave the doubt from within them. Which means," Venas paused, " We have to disguise ourselves as…_mortals._"

The demons groaned collectively, which was comical, almost, had Venas not felt a sense of rebellion in the groan.

" Anyone disagree with the plan?" She challenged.

But she had already killed one demon. The other demons were smart enough not to anger her again. Smiling in satisfaction, she transformed herself into a voluptuous young woman. The others followed suit, transforming into old men, young girls, innocents of all different kinds.

" Now," Venas began, " This is what we do."

oO

Chris was better again, at least, he did not feel so lost and confused as he originally was. His father came into the room.

" Dad?" Chris was puzzled. He had sensed Leo orbing in with his uncle and brother, but school had not finished yet.

" Hey Chris. How are you feeling?" Leo asked, worry lacing his words as he took in Chris's pale complexion.

" I'm okay."

Leo felt his forehead. " You're getting cold…" He whispered, remembering the feeling as Chris's body faded into nothingness. The cold chill, the absence of life…his son must be remembering it all…

_God, he is only seven years old—he is turning eight in a few weeks but that's still too young! What is causing this?_

" I feel okay," Chris insisted, and he really did. He had no clue how he looked on the outside.

Leo sat down next to Chris. " Chris, can you tell me what happened? If you remember anything, or saw anything…"

If possible, Chris paled even more. The poor child shook his head, suddenly frightened. " I don't want to remember." He said in a small voice. " It's dark and scary, and Wyatt's mean and you're never there when I needed you…" In fact, Chris had no clue what he was saying, but the emotion was much stronger than that faint hint he felt earlier that day in class.

Leo paused for a long time, before nodding a little bit. " Alright." He said to his son. " Okay. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

Chris shut his eyes. He was suddenly so sleepy. The real world faded around him and he was suddenly drawn into a dark, damp chamber, and someone was laughing at him and stuffing a hot iron poker down his throat—

oO

Meanwhile, Coop was yelling at Phoebe.

" I can't believe you didn't tell me!" The irate cupid slammed the newspaper on the table. " I can't believe I have to hear it from Paige _seven years after we married!_"

" Coop—"

" I mean, I'm part of the family! Sure, I'm not your average angel, I don't go around slaying demons because I'm bringing people together, but I'm still part of the family! I mean, Henry doesn't go around slaying demons either and Paige tells him stuff!"

" Coop, Paige probably didn't tell Henry either! It's not something we just up and go ' Oh by the way, our nephew came back from the future once to save our other nephew but because we were lousy aunts we gave him hell and then when time came we couldn't even save his life'!" Phoebe felt tears sting her eyes, but they were not strong enough to fall. Not yet. " Besides, we had the new Chris. Baby Christopher. We never really lost him."

" Well apparently, you did. Because those memories had to have come from somewhere. I still can't believe you kept this from me!"

" Well I didn't mean to! I just didn't think this was important!"

" You told me how Prue died! You told me how Grams died! You told me how your mother died, God dang it, you told me everything except for what happened in 2004!"

" That's because you never asked! Oh come on Coop—"

" I didn't ask for the other things! Did I go ahead and ask you, ' Oh Phoebe, just out of curiosity can we talk about how Prue died while we're sitting here drinking champagne on a random Thursday evening'? You took the initiative! How was that different with Chris?"

" Because _Chris is still here._" This time the tears did spill from Phoebe's eyes. " Because we never allowed ourselves to grieve for him because there was so much to do. We had demons after us and Leo becoming an Avatar and the Elders pulling tug of war with us with Leo in the middle, not to mention the Angel of Destiny taking Leo away so that we can fight the great battle with Christie and Billie! All of this, and we had to care for Chris, and every time we look at him we have to remind ourselves that that's Chris in the play pen, that's Chris with my daughters, that's Chris playing with Wyatt and Dad and Leo and little Henry and the twins and it just didn't make sense to grieve for big Chris when little Chris is so happy and _still with us!_"

Coop was still fuming, but he was suddenly silent. Phoebe sighed.

" Do you know what happens when that sort of thing…happens?" Coop asked, in a much more level, controlled voice.

" What?" Phoebe asked, fear tugging her heart.

" Normally, nothing." Coop turned around. " Because most mortals have new souls, you know. They can handle that sort of thing. That's why you have people who claim they remember their past lives. They're few and far between. That's because until recently, the human population never exceeded a billion, at least not by much."

Phoebe was quiet.

" But sometimes," Coop sighed, " Sometimes the soul is tired, you know? Sometimes it's not ready to be cycled back so quickly. Sure, Chris might have died young, but he still died. To be reintroduced so abruptly—that kid's having his old memories, you know? Because the soul can't contain it. And unlike other cases, the soul _spills _the memories. Chris is about to be overwhelmed by that alternate future. And it's going to affect his mental, his physical, _and _his magical health unless we find a way to stop it."

Phoebe sniffled, still weeping, but the dread had taken hold of her so she did not make a sound.

Coop sighed again. " Ugh. Well, usually this kind of thing is triggered by something, since if it had been this bad then Chris would never have survived his first two to three years." Phoebe paled when she realized just lucky they all had been, that Chris had survived that, but the comment also made her very alarmed about something else.

" Do you think…do you think it's a demon?"

" I don't know, Pheebs."

" They wouldn't say anything?"

Knowing Phoebe meant the Elders, Coop nodded wearily. " They just gave me that clue, that's all."

Phoebe wrung her hands in dismay. " I have to get to the manor, now. I mean…I was gonna go over there anyway, but I…oh god."

_I have to see Chris. Baby Chris. My nephew. My nephew…_

Coop nodded. " Alright."

His wife had not even had time to take off her coat when Coop accosted her earlier when she came home. She merely reached out her hand this time and Coop took it, noting how wet it still was, that her cheeks were still glistening from an old pain that was nevery really acknowledged but had never gone away either.

_Oh Phoebe…_ He thought, sorry now that he had wounded her like this. They disappeared in a pale purple glow. The living room of the manor materialized around them.

Paige was sitting on the couch with the book on her lap. Wyatt was watching television, and Coop could see that the other kids had come home from school and were all watching Nickelodeon. Henry was on the same couch as Paige but he was typing on his laptop.

" Hey Coop." Henry greeted.

" Yo, Henry," Coop gave him a fist to fist, " What's up?"

" Ah, got to send an email to the District Attorney in Los Angeles." Henry replied. " How's the matchmaking going?"

" Done with step one—getting a guy successfully through a date." Coop replied.

" Heard about Chris up there?" Henry asked.

" Yeah." Coop nodded, then wondered if Paige actually told Henry about the other Chris.

" Poor guy. Ugh! Attach the stupid document already!"

" We do have optical fiber, you know." Paige pointed out.

" Yeah, but it's only thirty-three KB!"

" Dunnot what's going on, but okay." Coop turned around. " Where's Leo?"

" Upstairs with Chris." Paige replied.

" Gotta go talk to him." Coop left Phoebe's side.

Coop went upstairs, but just as he was about to enter Chris's room, Leo came out, looking frantic.

" Leo?"

" It's Chris," Leo cried, even though it was redundant; of course it was Chris. " It's Chris—he's having a nightmare and I can't snap him out of it—someone's choking him—he's choking—you have to get the sisters up here," His voice broke.

" Stay with him!" Coop orbed down. " Paige! Piper! Phoebe!"

Chris was writhing, the iron suffocating him, burning at his throat, tears spilling from his eyes. The demons laughed cruelly and merciless hands gripped at his arms and legs, clawing at his skin. He wanted it to stop, he wanted it to end, he could not stand it, the pain was unbearable, he wished his father were here but his father never comes, and Wyatt, Wyatt, what was going on with Wyatt? Wyatt no longer feels his brother's pain anymore…the pain, the agony, blood spilled out from his nostrils as the demons forced the iron down, the metal pulling the flesh that burned and stuck to it as it went deeper and deeper—someone help him—but he had no friends, no family left. He was entirely alone. He thrashed in agony—

" Someone wake him up!" Piper shrieked as she watched blood spill from her son's nose.

" Uh, ah…" Paige tried to think past the panic in her mind. " Spell! Spell! Ah…"

" What dreams reveal, let it not kill,

Let this child wake, and let it break." Phoebe incanted, hardly knowing what she was saying.

Chris's eyes snapped open. A thundering series of footsteps on the stairs announced that Wyatt, along with the cousins, had also come up to see what was wrong. They hardly had to—Chris began screaming, now that his throat was no longer clogged or burning. He felt no pain, but the terror was there, the despair, the maddening fear, and he screamed and screamed and tears spilled from his eyes and he hardly registered his mother's warm arms, his father's desperate kiss on the top of his head, Wyatt's cries through the bond—in fact, Wyatt's presence made him all the more crazed.

Objects began flying around the room, breaking, shattering, and the whirlwind of noise only served to terrify Chris more. Piper held Chris in one arm and tried to freeze some of the objects but the desks and the papers were too much, and Chris went on screaming.

It was not until Chris's energy died down that he finally stopped and recovered his bearings. Piper had given up on trying to calm the room and merely held her child between herself and her husband. Wyatt was crying too, and Paige hugged Wyatt to comfort him. Other children were scared as well, but none were as affected as the two oldest.

" Shh…" Piper told Chris, hushing him and comforting him the only way she knew how. " Mommy's here, Daddy's here, we're all here, nothing's going to happen to you. You're safe, nothing will harm you, alright darling? Everything will be okay. You're okay. You're not hurt. You're safe, all of us are okay, it was only a nightmare." She ignored the blood staining her shirt and Chris's face and hair.

For a long time Chris was quiet, and only the soft whimpers from Wyatt and the other children were heard.

" I don't want to sleep again." Chris whispered. " Mommy, can I sleep with you tonight?"

" Of course, honey." Piper cuddled her youngest to her. " I'll keep the dreams away from you. Your dad and I both will."

Her boy was still shaking, trembling from horror. The vision was too real, it continued to pull at him, threatening to bury him in the experience again. The child continued to shudder, and Piper began to rock him. She looked up at Leo, tears staining her cheeks.

_What are we going to do?_ She mouthed to Leo.

Leo was also crying, and he could not help but wonder exactly what his other son had to suffer through.

_Don't give up…_

_You either…_

oO

Aralyn stopped.

" What is that?" She asked.

The seer hesitated. " What do you mean, Living Maiden?"

" I mean that whirlwind of magic up there." Aralyn blinked. " Or is it actually below us? Some worlds do that."

" I do not sense anything." The seer knew what was happening, however.

" Hm. Well, whatever it is, someone should take care of that. It's not natural in this world, anyway."

The seer bowed a little. Aralyn glared at her.

" You know what it is." She accused, a little annoyed.

" No."

" Really? You are a demon seer. You do not know what that was?"

" No, Great Mother."

" Oh good grief. I am not—oh well." Aralyn shrugged. " Your world. You people take care of it the way you see fit. I am just here to look at your prodigies." She hesitated. " Really, so far I am not impressed. You demons are all so…" She tried to think of a better word, " …stupid."

She paused again. " Are you certain you should not try to take care of that?"

The seer bowed her head and said nothing.

Aralyn rolled her eyes. " Your world, as I said." She looked up nevertheless in contemplation, as if wondering if she should do something anyway. Then she looked down.

" So far I am seriously not impressed." Aralyn folded her arms. " I have all the time in the world, but this is getting quite dull. I am really tempted to check that out."

The seer said nothing, even as she clenched her jaw. She relaxed when the Living Maiden gave another shrug.

" Good grief." Aralyn sighed. " I am acting like a miserable mortal, worrying about random magical surges. I took this job specifically so I could stop thinking about your petty squabbles. Give it here—who else do you have?"


	4. Chapter 4

From Beyond the Clouds

Chapter 4

_There is no one left…no friends, no family, even Wyatt is gone—it's so unfair…so tired, lonely, hurts, hopeless—_

His mother's arms tightened around him as Chris tensed, and the feeling of love from those arms reminded him that no, no one died. His family was here, all of them, Wyatt was here, _but will he stay?_ And he had friends, many friends. Just Friday he had been playing catch with them.

The memories receded and there was just comforting darkness. His father's light snores sounded in the background. The horror melted away and Chris felt safe again.

_When was the last time there was safety? Safe…safe…safe…safe…_

Even as the word repeated in his mind Chris felt that fear returning. _Safe…safe…it's not going to stay…Wyatt will come…Wyatt will make things better…Wyatt will kill you…he ordered that iron poker down your throat…he is no longer your brother…_And the memory began to form.

Chris whimpered, and his mother instantly woke, sensing her sun's distress. " Chris, shhh." She urged. Leo stopped snoring, but did not wake up yet.

Chris's whimpers became more frantic as the image formed. He did not want to remember these things that he could not understand. He was tired of all these images. He was _tired._ His whimpers became soft wails.

" Chris?" Leo called, sitting up a little, voice husky with sleep. " Chris, buddy, you okay?"

Chris had started trembling.

He was fumbling the shelves, frantic and panicking. Behind him, he knew, someone was there, but he was trying to save them—her—the stench of blood hovered in the air. There was a birthday cake on the floor, his mother's, but it had blood on it. He was screaming, crying. He was tall enough to reach the shelves!

_Oh._ Chris thought, for a moment surprised by that realization. _I'm tall?_ And then he was trapped inside that other mind again. He had to save his mother. Why wouldn't Wyatt come? How come his father is not answering his calls? _Mom! Wyatt! Dad! Please, not on my birthday—Mom—no—please, no, you can't die—_And that well of despair forming in him, threatening to plunge him under—he was losing her—he was losing all of them, Aunt Phoebe, Aunt Paige, someone help them, he could not heal! Why?

" Chris, peanut, it's just a dream." Piper hushed him, and the dream receded once again as he registered the real feeling of his mother's arms around him. She was stroking his hair, making sure to calm him. Chris's shuddering ceased.

" He okay now?" Leo asked. " What is he dreaming about?"

" I don't know." Piper whispered back. " I think we'll have to try to cast a spell tomorrow and see if we can get to the bottom of this."

" Okay. I'll ask Paige and Coop to go back up to the Elders." Leo lied back down. Piper continued to soothe her child. " It's okay Chris, Mommy's here."

Chris moved his face, and discovered that it was wet. His nose was stuffed. He sniffled.

Sensing what her youngest needed, Piper rolled over, momentarily letting go of Chris, who panicked, afraid that the memories would return. When nothing happened even when Piper rolled back over, Chris relaxed, blowing his nose on the tissue his mother gave him. Piper reached past Chris to place the tissue box next to the bedstand where it would be easier for her son to reach without waking Leo up.

Chris went back to sleep, the memories and nightmares coming and going in intervals, keeping Piper awake. He could not make much sense out of them, but they felt real, and he was terrified of them. He wanted them to stop…

But they would not stop. The memories kept coming. Dull, strange, blurry, but always there, and the fear never ceased, never ever ever ever—

oO

Wyatt had assured his parents earlier that evening that he would be all right in the room by himself. He was ten years old—many single children sleep by themselves in their own rooms at ten years, even earlier. Wyatt thought he would be too, after his Aunt Phoebe made him a temporary blocking potion that helped keep Chris's emotions out of his mind.

He could not sleep though. The room the boys shared felt empty, and he felt lonely and afraid. He could no longer sense Chris. He lost a companion. And he did nothing wrong that day!

For some reason Chris did not want to be in the same room with Wyatt, so when Leo suggested Wyatt sleep with Piper and he would take his son's bed—after all, Wyatt had been shocked too—Chris had adamantly refused. It hurt Wyatt deeply—he could not understand why Chris did not want him around. It was almost as if Chris were afraid of him. And again, Wyatt did not even do anything!

Certainly, before, they had childish quarrels where Chris refused to speak to Wyatt or look at him. But those were easily resolved and forgotten. This time Chris refused to let Wyatt near him, ducking repeatedly behind his mother, and when Leo suggested he stay with Wyatt that night Chris had asked, " You're going away again?" which did not make sense to the older brother at all. Their father never went anywhere. What was Chris talking about?

But at that Leo seemed reluctant to leave Chris. He asked Wyatt very reluctantly if it was okay for him to sleep alone in his room. Wyatt was hurt and confused, not understanding the true extent of what was going on with his little brother. He felt that genuine fear, as if Chris was suddenly afraid Wyatt would use his powers to hurt him bad.

At first he could not answer, his mind continuously interrupted by Chris's mental screams. He finally blurted out that Chris was screaming in his head, so Piper quickly ordered Phoebe to make a temporary blocking potion that would work twenty-four hours and could be taken repeatedly as long as needed.

And now Chris is in his parents' room, and Wyatt was alone. Before he had wished he had his own room, ever since he learned that other children sometimes had their own rooms. There was peace and quiet and privacy, the ability to do their own things without a little brother bugging them.

But now that he had this room to himself, he was scared. Not to mention, he could not for the life of him figure out what he did that day that made Chris so mad at him. Surely it was not the lunch? Wyatt only hesitated because he wanted his brother with him in school. Sure, he had other friends, but he never went to school without Chris before. And Chris was insisting he was fine too, so it was not as if Chris had really wanted to go home.

Feeling miserable, Wyatt fell asleep. He had nightmares of a different sort, ones that did not portray reality, but of his internal stress.

oO

Billie yawned.

" Who decided to come up with a thirty-six hour potion? And decided that you have to actually do stuff _other _than let it sit and boil for at least twelve hours of it?"

" Don't ask." Phoebe yawned as well. " You should go home, Billie. I mean, you devoted so much to our family and so far you haven't even gotten a date yet. This is something Paige and I can handle because we're older."

" Oh please." Billie laughed. " You can't be serious."

" It's true." Paige insisted with Phoebe. " You're still a kid, like it or not. We've pulled all-nighters before."

" Uh, I _did _go to college." Billie pointed out.

" Yeah, but that's different." Phoebe replied. " That wasn't healthy either, but you were just absorbing knowledge. Have you ever pulled all-nighters in a lab? That's what it's like pulling an all-nighter for your kids."

" Yeah, well, I want to help." Billie insisted. " I care about Chris too." 

Phoebe smiled warmly at her. " We know. But you look so tired. You should go home with the girls."

" I'll be fine. What's the next ingredient?"

" What do you know?" Paige answered. " It's milk."

" Oh my god, something Piper would use when she's not making potions." Phoebe laughed quietly. At this stage, at two in the morning, they were all dying for something to keep them awake. Even the corniest jokes were acceptable.

The potion simmered. It would take a long time for it to bubble, and bubbling would have to be the last thing it does before it is bottled. All they could come up with is prevent new memories from attacking Chris, since that was what they did so far. As for the memories Chris already had, they could not get rid of those without risking his entire memory. The potion will definitely not solve all their problems, but it was the only place they could think of to start.

" Seriously, Billie," Paige told the girl as she poured the milk in, " You should go home. We'll have to pull an all-nighter tomorrow too."

Billie sighed, seeing the point in that. " Alright. You'll be okay here?"

" As I've said. Done this before." Phoebe smiled. " It'll be okay, Billie."

" If you're sure." Billie yawned again. " I'll come over in the morning. Bye guys."

" How about this, I orb you home." Paige offered, noting how tired Billie looked. " I don't want you to get in an accident."

Billie nodded, happy with that idea. The two disappeared.

Phoebe stirred the potion, watching it change from blue to red. She sighed, recalling the conversation she had with her husband. _"He is still here!" _That had been some kind of excuse, really. The truth was they did not want to acknowledge that the other Chris, that Chris they had shunned and kicked out and suspected, probably came from a world full of horrors they could never imagine, and having fought tooth and nail for his family and the world, may never reap the rewards of his efforts. What happens when such things happen? They were not certain. To die before you were born? Is Chris trapped in limbo? Did they ever want to know?

But now that Coop told her what was going on, it was obvious now that Chris had been reincarnated, or at least his soul had gone to its rightful body. Except not in the right way. After everything he went through, Chris was the one that paid the ultimate price. And the sad thing really, though it was best, is Wyatt must never know how much his little brother sacrificed for him.

_He might know anyway._ Phoebe thought, thinking of her older sister and brother-in-law. _How long can you keep this from your children? Chris is confused. He could not understand why he has memories of an evil Wyatt all of the sudden, a Wyatt that uses his powers to hurt Chris. Because why else was he bleeding earlier that day? Why else is he avoiding Wyatt after that fit? Wyatt is confused too. Wyatt does not understand that Chris remembers another version of him, one that does not love him, does not care…_

Paige orbed back, sighing. " What's next?"

" Uh," Phoebe went over to the list. " It's—"

Suddenly, there was a flash before her eyes. Phoebe jerked back, landing on the floor. At first there was a swirl of images, of Chris, of different witches, of Prue, calling, and then when the swirl died down she was in a dark cave.

" What?" Phoebe looked around. It was the Underworld. She felt like she was in a vision quest. Everything felt strange…

_" These powers can give you the world." _A woman was saying as she held a hand out over a demon's head. _" Do what you will with them. I will advise to stay low, but if you judge it to be necessary, give everyone hell."_

There was something familiar about her…Phoebe could swear she saw this woman before. She was Asian, with a serene face, wearing green robes over a green dress, and her staff was clutched loosely, almost idly, in her left hand while her right hand hovered over the demon. Light, warm and golden, like healing spells of Whitelighters, glowed from that right hand, and an invisible wind lifted her hair so she looked both tranquil and imposing.

The demon turned around when the glow died, getting up. The woman smiled.

" Great Mother." Phoebe realized that in the shadows there were many demons behind the woman. " We honor you."

" Oh please." The woman rolled her eyes. The demon faced Phoebe and the witch had a good look at his face. He had a symbol on his face, covering much of his nose and left cheek.

Then there was a flash again. The Golden Bridge was exploding, and she heard a scream—it was Chris's scream. A darklighter had plunged an arrow into her nephew—but her nephew was the adult Chris, the twenty-one-year-old Chris that had died in Leo's arms—or was he?

Phoebe gasped to the waking world. Paige grabbed her. " Are you okay?"

" Yeah, yeah,"  
" What did you see?"

" Um…um, we have to find…we have to find this woman, this Chinese woman, wearing green. And this demon, we have to find them quick, before they destroy the world!"

" The Chinese woman? Are you talking about Aralyn?" Paige cursed.

" I—I don't know. I'll go check the book. He had this mark on his face—you continue with the potion!" And Phoebe hurried upstairs, not even bothering to take care her footsteps were soft in her haste. Piper and Leo could wake up, Wyatt, Chris, but Chris will die if this demon got whatever powers he was going to get—Phoebe knew it.

In Piper and Leo's bedroom, Chris shuddered again. Piper tightened her arms around her son and silently prayed that Phoebe and Paige will hurry up with the potion. Chris will make it, she knew. Chris was strong, he made it through an entire lifetime. But she did not want him to have to.

In Chris's dream, Chris was singing.

Wyatt had thrown him into isolation. All was black and all was silent, save for the sound of his voice, Chris's own voice. The spells on the walls and floor and ceilings prevented the boy from orbing out, and no light could shine forth from Chris's being to light the darkness. Chris tried to move, but the metal shackles chained him to the wall so he could not even lie down.

Chris hardly knew what he was doing. He was desperate to leave, desperate to stop the silence. Somewhere in the back of his mind he felt phantom arms around him and knew that this was not real. He was actually with his mother. But the darkness was consuming nd the silence oppressing, and Chris felt he might go mad.

He had been here for…_three days…_no food and only a bit of water to keep him alive. Because Wyatt wanted him alive. Because Wyatt needed to know where the resistance headquarters was.

_" Come with me, where chains will never bind you. All your grief, at last, at last behind you. Lord in Heaven, look down on him in mercy…"_

Out of the darkness, he heard a distant voice calling him.

_" Honey, it's only a dream. Mommy's here, Daddy's here, you gotta wake up peanut._"

Chris tried to reach toward the voice. Was he dreaming? Because Mom was dead, a long time ago. Six years ago. Mom died on his birthday. Mom died on his fourteenth birhday. Mom died because of Chris. She was trying to protect Chris. She was shot. She was murdered. Chris murdered her.

In the living world Chris's body shook again and he whimpered, tears squeezed out of his eyes. Piper finally sat up, sighing.

" Banish darkness of the deep,

That my son may dreamless, sleep."

And then all was empty for Chris. He sank into less troubled slumber, but his little body still tensed as if afraid the dreams would return. Piper sighed, glad the spell worked, because she would have a lot to say to the Elders if they did not let her cast that spell. Personal gain could stuff itself somewhere, her son needed help.

But it was almost four in the morning, and Piper suddenly felt exhausted. She had practically stayed up all night trying to comfort the shivering bundle in her arms. Her left arm was numb from Chris's weight. But the child had not responded to her comfort as he should.

Still, at least they have about six hours to sleep, since tomorrow was a Sunday. Piper shut her eyes and adjusted Chris gently. Chris did not stir.

oO

Morning dawned. Billie headed over with Coop. They arrived the same time Henry and his kids did, bringing Melinda and Hope over. Phoebe looked dead, but her eyes had a horrified light to it.

" What's wrong?" Coop asked.

" I can't find it. I've been searching for hours. Oh my god," Phoebe quickly snatched a piece of paper and hurriedly drew on it. " We'll have to search the magic school."

" What? Why?" Billie asked.

" Premonition. Hurry, we're running out of time!" Phoebe cried.

" Whoa, whoa, listen," Coop held his wife steady. " Listen, you're tired, you need to rest."

" I don't have _time._ There was this Asian woman who is about to give a demon great powers. We have to find her, and this demon!"

Coop wondered what Paige thought of this.

" Okay, you stay put, I have to ask paige something."

" Don't you guys get it?" Phoebe cried desperately, " _We are running out of time!_"

" Okay, you know what," Billie set her bag down on the sofa, " I'll look in the book while you and Coop go to magic school. Paige can tontinue the potion."

" Sounds like a plan." Paige called from the kitchen. " And Coop, it might be her."

Coop cursed.

" Wait a minute, who might it be?" Phoebe asked. " Aralyn?"

" Aralyn?" Billie blinked, confused.

Coop sighed. " Can't jump to conclusions here. Billie, look through the Book of Shadows again." He took his wife's hand and they disappeared.

Paige growled. " Ugh, Aralyn, it better not be you!"

Leo opened the bedroom door to find Billie running up the stairs.

" Huh?" He blinked. " Billie, what's going on?"

" Have to look through the book. How's Chris?" Billie stopped halfway up.

" Um…" Leo turned around to find Chris and Piper up already, " Fine, for now."

" Okay. Have to go through the book. Coop and Phoebe are at magic school."

Piper looked out. " Hey, Billie, wait a minute, what are you looking through the book for?"

" Searching for a demon with this symbol." Billie waved a piece of paper too quickly for even Leo to see what was drawn on it. Wyatt came out of his room in his pajamas.

" Billie?"

But Billie was already upstairs.

Piper sighed. " Chris, why don't you go downstairs with your brother?"

Chris eyed Wyatt warily, who stared back at him.

" Come on, it's okay," Piper urged, heart in her throat.

To her surprise, and Wyatt's, Chris nodded.

" Come along, Wyatt, get dressed." Piper pushed Chris gently toward Wyatt, who stared at Chris until his little brother was past him and into their room. He could still tell his brother was afraid, even though the bond was blocked.

_What did I do wrong?_

Piper followed the boys into the room to pick out the shirts and pants. Leo went downstairs when he heard Henry's voice. Paige came out of the kitchen to get some air. The kids were all nervous, though they tried their best to ignore the tension in the air.

" How is he?" Paige asked.

" Better." Leo replied. " But he barely got any sleep last night. Piper too. I heard her use a spell in the end."

" Probably what's best." Paige said softly. She stood up. " Gotta get back to the potion."

" Thanks a lot, Paige," Leo suddenly had to say, noting the circles under his sister-in-law's eyes. Piper barely got any sleep, but her sisters did not get any at all.

Paige scoffed. " What's family for?" And she disappeared into the kitchen.

Leo looked at Melinda and Hope. He frowned. " Where are your parents?" He asked Hope.

" Magic school." Hope replied.

Leo blinked. " Why?"

" Search for a demon."

" They think a demon did this?"

" Phoebe had a premonition last night. Searched the Book of Shadows for hours. Didn't find anything." Paige poked her head out of the kitchen.

" Well, what was this premonition about?"

" Dunno. She wouldn't say. She kept saying we didn't have time. It might have something to do with—" Paige caught herself for a second, " Chris."

At his son's name, Leo completely missed her mistake. " What happened to Chris?"

" I think…Paige fell silent for a moment. " I…I think he died."

Trying to swallow the lump in his throat and failing, Leo closed his eyes, running his fingers through his hair. He desperately wished he were still a normal whitelighter, because then he could still help his family. His son…his son was suffering and there was nothing Leo could do but sit and watch as the rest of the family tried their best.

Chris and Wyatt came downstairs. Wyatt looked like he did not sleep well, but kept silent. Piper comforted Wyatt while Chris ran to hug Leo, his little body cold.

" I don't feel so good." Leo heard his small voice say.

At first Leo did not quite understand what his child meant, but taking in the sickening pallor on his boy's face, he suddenly realized what was wrong.

" Paige, garbage can, _now._" He hissed.

Paige blinked. " Oh!" And she hurriedly orbed the can behind Chris, who doubled over it and heaved.

Wyatt watched with wide eyes. Chris only had a little in his stomach. After the first two gasps he was only left with dry heaves, painful and exhausting.

_Sick sick sick sick sick…_

When Chris was finally done, despite Leo's best attempts to massage his arms and comfort him by rubbing his back in slow circles, Chris passed out.

Paige stared at Chris and held out her hands to try to heal him. No glow appeared.

" Come on!" The half-whitelighter urged. Just then she jerked back. " No!"

" What?" Leo pressed his fingers to Chris's pulse. Relieved to find a faint one there, he looked at Paige.

" The Elders, they're calling me."

" Go." Leo told her. " And see if you can help Chris."

Paige nodded and disappeared in a swirl of blue. Leo sighed, gathering his son in his arms. " Billie! The potion!" He called upstairs.

Wyatt was crying again, though he was so frightened he could not utter a sound. Piper rubbed Wyatt's arms, sending what love she could.

" He should be fine." Leo sighed. He lifted the little body and placed it gently on the couch.

Henry cursed. " Should we take him to the hospital?"

" The hospital won't be able to help him." Leo sighed. " Hope, go wet a cloth and bring it here."

Hope disappeared into the kitchen.

oO

Two hours later Paige returned, swearing an oath.

" What is it?" Leo asked.

" They assigned me a charge. I've been arguing with them but they won't back down. I gotta go." Paige disappeared again.

" Hey, wait!" Piper yelled. " Paige!" She growled at where Paige used to stand. " Now is so not the time!"

" Don't they know?" Henry asked. " About Chris?"

Chris was still unconscious. Leo was getting very worried. At least Chris did not appear to have any dreams. Billie waved at the smoke from the potion.

" Just because he's calm doesn't mean he's not dreaming." Piper pointed out to Leo. " Maybe he's merely recalling more pleasant memories."

Leo sighed.

" And they assign her a charge. Chris needs her."

Piper shook her head, sighing with Leo.

" Fourteen more hours to go." Billie called from the kitchen. " No hitches yet. Hey guys, can you summon Grams to help?"

" Grams! That's a good idea." Piper went upstairs.

Billie sighed. " I need a break. How did Paige and Phoebe do this for an entire night? Ugh."

Phoebe suddenly appeared with Coop, holding a book.

" Guys, this is not good."

" What is it?" Billie asked.

" It's Aralyn." Coop replied. " I don't know what the Elders were doing with her, but she's…well, we don't want her with demons, that's for sure."

" What do you mean?" Leo asked.

" Where's Piper and Paige?"

" Paige got assigned a new charge, Piper's upstairs summoning Grams. What is it?"

" She is called the Sorceress." Gram's voice replied, as the older woman came down the stairs with Piper. " She is called the Living Maiden, as well as the Destroyer of Worlds."

" What?"

" Wait, so that means—"

" She is not evil." Grams replied. " But she cannot be counted on."

" Yeah, it says here that she used to be mortal." Phoebe pointed to the page. " She got great power and used it to destroy a whole section of the universe. In the end she was killed, but she returned somehow."

" But why would someone like her be among the Elders?" Coop asked. " If she destroyed so many realms—"

" Because she is not evil." Grams replied. " She is neutral. She does whatever is necessary."

" What is she here for?" Leo asked.

" Not certain. But whatever it is, it includes giving a demon more power." Phoebe snapped the book shut. " We have to stop her."

" The potion!" Billie called. " Someone give me a hand here?"

" Right." Grams went into the kitchen.

" How do we find her?" Henry asked.

" Doesn't say. This was the only book that had anything about her, and that's only because one of her descendants was the first ancestor of demons."

" Are you sure she's not evil?"

" She is not evil." Grams repeated vehemently from the kitchen. " But you cannot summon her. She is too great a being."

" How come the Elders didn't tell us that?" Coop growled.

" We have to stop her from giving the powers to that demon!" Phoebe cried.

" Which demon is it?"

" He's part of a clan of demons called the Vancions." Phoebe said. " Should we kill them before she gets to them?'

" Wait until Paige gets back. For god's sake, Paige what's going on? Paige, get back here!"

Paige appeared, but to the group's surprise, she brought with her a woman.

" Demons!" Paige yelled.

Just then they shimmered in. Piper blew up one of them while Billie stabbed one with a fork. Piper blew up the last one.

" Okay, I'll heal." Paige moved the woman over to the couch.

" Who is she?" Piper asked.

" My charge. Jane." Paige replied. " Is Chris still out?"

" Yeah." Piper sighed.

Jane stared at Chris with a strange gleam in her eyes. None of the sisters noticed.

" Come on." Paige healed her. " Alright."

" Thank you." Jane smiled at her. " Wow."

" Okay, Wyatt, go and help Grams." Piper told him. Wyatt nodded, his eyes never leaving Chris as he backed into the kitchen. Piper sighed again. She knew Wyatt was suffering too.

" Well, Paige, we need your help." Phoebe told her youngest sister.

oO

The sisters orbed into the cavern, taking the demons by surprise.

" Eh?" One of the demons exclaimed stupidly. " What the hell!"

Piper threw the first potion, but it froze in midair. The sisters turned around to find the very demon Phoebe saw from her visions.

" Oh no." Phoebe whispered. " we're too late."

" That you are." The demon grinned, and he opened his right hand. With a faint glow, a pale spectre formed before him.

" Oh my god," Piper whispered, horrified.

" Oh my god," Phoebe echoed her.

" Is that Prue?" Paige asked, voice wavering.

Prue's spirit shimmered and she looked at them sadly. " I am sorry," She said, " I can't fight him."

" You aren't even trying!" Paige protested, and the three sisters backed away.

" I can't fight him." Prue tried to explain. " The Sorceress will not allow me…" She lifted her arms and the cavern started rocking. A blast of white light shot at the three sisters, who ducked down as one.

" Prue, stop it!" Piper cried, trying to freeze her, but she could not freeze the ghost. Behind her, the demon cackled with glee. Prue raised her hand again and another bolt of white shot toward the sisters. They rolled aside, getting to their feet.

Paige threw a bottle of potion at the demon, but it was caught by another ghost that was quickly summoned—a young child. The child dropped it to the ground and joined Prue in attacking the Charmed Ones. Soon the cavern was filled with more ghosts than demons.

" Paige, orb! Now!" Phoebe cried. " Back to the Halliwell Manor!"

More spirits began forming around them, all targeting them and attacking. Paige grabbed both sisters hand and orbed, fleeing.

They arrived back at the house. Leo stood up as soon as he saw them. " Done already?" He asked.

" No. We were too late." Phoebe looked at Coop tearfully. " She gave him his powers already. He could control the dead. He—"

" He summoned Prue." Piper said to Leo. " And somehow she was being controlled, that's the only way to explain it."

" She _attacked _you?" Coop asked.

" Oh yeah, she did," Paige nodded vehemently. " As well as other spirits and ghosts."

Coop cursed.

Just then, an Elder orbed down.

" You have a lot of explaining to do!" Paige snapped at the Elder.

" Perhaps." The Elder replied. " But first," He held out his arms. The walls and floors and ceiling glowed a gentle white, before fading.

" What was that?" Henry asked.

" A protection. Against the ghosts." The Elder replied. " You will need it, otherwise he may come after you."

" You knew this would happen!" Paige gritted her teeth in anger. " Why? Why did you set us up?"

" No one knew what she would do." The Elder replied. " And this is not the end. Do not lose hope." He orbed away.

" Oh no you don't! No!" Piper yelled after the orbs. " My son is sick and my sister got summoned by a freakin' demon! Don't you orb away from me!"

But the Elder had already gone. They rarely listen to those below them. Screaming in frustration, not caring for the mentality of the children, Piper sank into the couch and started sobbing in despair.

Billie turned to Jane, who was staring at them, wide-eyed. " You should probably go home." She said to the young witch.

" Are you sure?"

" Yeah, this is a family thing. Really, and you've had a long day." Billie assured her. " We'll figure something out here, really. We'll be fine." _I hope,_ she thought.

" If you're sure…" Jane stood up reluctantly, " I mean, I would love to help, really, if—"

" No." Billie shook her head. " It's odd enough that the Elder bothered to come here to fortify the house. They'll figure it out. And there's nothing more for you to do."

" Okay." Jane nodded.

oO

Jane closed the door to her apartment. After looking around, her body shimmered, and her features changed. It was Venas.

" Great Sorceress," The seer said as soon as Venas revealed her true form, " This is Venas, leader of—"

" I hardly care if she is leader or follower." Aralyn interrupted. " But you were pretending to be a witch."

Venas bowed respectfully and kept her silence.

" Well!" Aralyn smiled. " I like that. That would be effective in dealing with plenty of real witches. How do you plan to keep your cover, with all these demons shimmering in and out? That whitelighter the Elders assigned you is bound to figure out sometime."

" I kept track of her." Venas replied. " She is the only one who would orb here. I plan to get close to the family to eventually place tracking spells on other members of the family."

" Nice." Aralyn nodded in satisfaction. " Smartest demon I have met yet. Just for that, here is a little trick I can give you for you to own."

She tossed a green ball of light, which entered Venas. Venas collapsed on the floor, writhing a little, but then stood up.

" What did you do?" Venas asked, head bowed.

" A little invincibility." Aralyn replied. " Everything attacking you will go through you. Do not think you can take advantage of this and kill me, by the way. I have other ways to block attacks, and you will not know when I get rid of those. I know you and your demon ways. Ever so predictable. But be glad! When I said everything I _mean _everything. Potions, spells, rocks, needles, daggers, the like. Even your own attacks, if reflected, will go through you. That would get the witches confused, I reckon! Now go and have some fun! But wait—that would not do for whatever plan you have there, right?"

Venas merely bowed her head even more in respect.

" That is getting annoying." Aralyn opined. " But no matter. I only have a few more years to experience this, might as well enjoy it. Now, I think I shall look at a few other demons I was considering before I look at the nymphs. Coming, seer?"

The seer stepped to her and the two of them disappeared.


	5. Chapter 5

From Beyond the Clouds

Chapter 5

The potion was ready by Monday morning. Phoebe stayed at the television to figure out if there were any attacks by the ghosts. So far, for some reason, the demon seemed disinclined to use his new powers.

Chris woke up to relative quiet, compared to the turmoil in his mind while he was dreaming. His mother was at his side, holding the bottle of potion to his lips. He drank, anxious to get rid of the memories.

" Did it work, honey?" Piper asked, worry etched all across her features.

It sort of did. The memories had faded into faint murmurs in the background, no longer blinding him and deafening him with their force. But they were still there, and if he concentrated he could actually remember them as if they were his own. Chris opened his mouth to tell her this, but something made him stop.

She was so worried. The entire family was exhausted. An instinct that had never spoken to him before whispered that this was all his fault. That if he could just stop whining to everyone whenever he had a tiny problem, his family would suffer less for him.

Wyatt stared at Chris, anxious to get his little brother back. He concluded that he had done nothing wrong, and if he did, well, he had the right to know from Chris, and Chris should not just turn his back on him the way the boy did. He sensed uncertainly seep through the bond—the blocking potion he took was weakening, but thankfully there was no fear.

There was a different light in Chris's eyes. A more reserved, mature light. The seven-year-old gave a stoic nod. " Yeah. It worked."

Too exhausted and relieved to believe otherwise, Piper believed him and gathered her boy to her, glad that it was over. Chris clung to his mother with a fear previously unknown to him. _She is not in my future,_ Chris thought,_ I cannot lose her…_

He did not even know where the thoughts were coming from. But regardless of where they actually originated, they were now his. He was now afraid, as afraid as his memories made him. And this time, he was not going to scream. Because screaming meant his mother and aunt running straight into a trap. Screaming meant watching his mother bleed to death while he was helpless to stop the blood from staining the carpet. Screaming meant losing his father's faith in him, meant losing Wyatt, meant losing himself. Screaming meant—

oO

" Are you sure I should stay in San Francisco? I am getting bored of this place."

The seer waited anxiously. The Elder was definitely going to say it, he was—

" If you plan to enrich evil in San Francisco with powers, the least you can do is even the odds." Radelin persuaded Aralyn. " You once said that you like having balance."

" Balance, alright." Aralyn leaned back in the chair, bored. " But they don't have a lot, except for that little guy. And the Angels of Death can take care of him, being rather immune to ghostly spells. He would not dare abuse that power since he knows what is good for himself. And I already gave two demons in San Francisco powers. That is a lot concentrated in one area. I want to go to Tibet and take a look at the witches there."

The seer relaxed. It looks like the Elder will not mention him after all. Aralyn, so far not impressed, and not curious either, looked almost impatient to leave the apartment.

Radelin sighed. Aralyn raised her eyebrows.

" Well, there is nothing else for me to do here. Let us go take a lot at the short red-cheeked folks up in the mountains. And you, I think, should stay here." Aralyn folded her arms. The staff lifted itself, twirled once, and disappeared as she said this to the seer. " You have your demon folks to take care of. I may or may not be back, depending on what I find."

Without much more ceremony, Aralyn disappeared.

The seer glared at the Elder as Radelin orbed away. Venas turned to the seer.

" You are cooperating." She said with some surprise.

The seer turned around. " For now, we all want the same thing. It is hardly my decision how we get to the result. For now, your plan shows promise, and that is all that matters."

Venas sneered. " You merely wish to distract me, while you lead the Great Mother on little adventures to find 'worthy' heirs and slaughter others, and reap the benefits of reward at the end."

" She came to me, not the other way around." The seer replied. " And as for reaping the rewards, do not fault me for it. Had I not held that in mind, I would not call myself a demon."

" True." Venas turned around. " But you better not get in our way. The plan is delicate."

" I know. Especially your position. You may even have the right of passage through the protected areas of good, in which case your cover must not be blown."

" And others, forming their mortal identities." Venas replied. " All to lure the Charmed Ones. It must not fail. Christopher Halliwell must die."

" As I said." The seer answered. " We both want the same thing."

oO

" At least we summon the Halliwell witches. They're more formidable than most." Leo pointed out. " Maybe if you summon them into this plane, the demon won't have the power over them."

" Let's go." Phoebe headed upstairs. Paige and Piper, and Grams followed.

" So what?" Henry asked. " Is she going to give all her powers to a bunch of demons?"

" Hope not." Coop replied, flipping over the book. " Even if one of her descendants sired the demons."

Henry cursed. " This is bad, isn't it?"

" Can you say 'doom'?" Coop slapped the book. " I'm surprised, frankly, that the demon didn't summon all the dead out and cause chaos everywhere."

" Maybe there was a condition."

" She doesn't care."

" You sound so sure."

" I'm not, but it sure sounds like it. If she cared she would have given the good side a boost too. Oh d—Billie's sleeping."

The girl was, her body slouched over the couch in an awkward position, but every part of her body showed she was exhausted.

" Poor girl." Coop clucked his tongue sympathetically, then telekinetically moved her to a more comfortable position. " She's been going nuts along with us for the entire weekend. And she has a seminar coming up."

" Maybe we should call in work and tell them she's not going." Henry suggested.

" Yeah, and I'll call for Phoebe."

Henry took out his cell phone and started dialing. " I have to go soon. I have work in an hour and a half so I'll have to leave in forty-five minutes."

" That's okay. We'll take care of things here." Coop replied. " You worry about the innocents."

Henry walked out into the other room so he could have some quiet. Coop went into the kitchen so Billie would not wake.

oO

" Hi Mom!" Patty blinked, and when she noticed all the matriarchs of the Halliwell line were with her, she frowned in confusion. " What?"

Prue suddenly realized she was able to meet her sisters. " Oh my god!" She cried, the first to step from the circle of candles and into the living realm. " Finally!" She burst into tears and hugged Piper.

The three living sisters were a little confused, especially at Prue's open greeting.

" Uh, honey?" Piper stared at Prue, and looked at her sisters. Obviously something went wrong back there.

" What is it?" Prue asked, a little hurt by the slightly cold welcome she received.

" Honey, didn't a demon summon you?" Phoebe asked.

" What?" Prue blinked. " What—what are you talking about? I was with them the whole time!"

Following that exclamation was a long period of great confusion and desperation to clarify things. Phoebe related the incident in the Underworld and elaborated on Aralyn, while Paige related the Elder's instructions when she and Coop were summoned up there for six hours.

" I have no clue what that is." Prue declared. " I was dead the entire time, and with them. Whatever that demon summoned, it wasn't me, and the other ghosts you were talking about? They probably weren't ghosts either. Because everyone was with us, you know? And the Angel of Death would have a lot to say about that anyway."

" What if he brainwashed you?"

" You think he would?" Patty asked. " Why would he bother? And we wouldn't have had our memories of the entire time. There would have been a great big void. It's not like the demon knows what we see in the other plane."

" Well…what happened then?" Piper asked.

" Don't know. Maybe he knew about the old Charmed One and created a doppleganger ghost?" Prue shrugged. " As for Aralyn, though, she could promise to be big trouble, or big help, depending on what her mood is."

" You know about her?"

" Everyone in the dead realm knows about her." Patty replied. " Didn't Grams tell you?"

" I did." Grams protested. " But you have to admit, we don't know that much about her,"

" Except she had this son called Shaun, the Half-Drow, whose descendant gave rise to the demons and the bane of our existence." Prue commented wryly. " She's not really much of a sentimental person—in fact she's not really alive anymore. Actually, wasn't she dead just a few weeks ago?"

" She wasn't alive, definitely." One of the matriarchs replied. " She died thousands of years ago. Or rather, she was eliminated. How she came back is a mystery."

" Oh good." Phoebe grinned sarcastically. " This just gets better and better! What exactly is she doing here?"

" Last we know she's going around screwing up worlds." Patty replied. " Though not in the way you think. She seemed to be bored, that's all, if it's possible. And then out of the blue, I think, she gave away one of her powers to this world pretty far away from us."

The three sisters were silent.

" Okay, we got the impression that she's giving away powers. She bestowed this awesome power of summoning ghostly things to attack us back in the Underworld." Paige huffed. " What? Does she have more or something?"

" She has more power than anything in this universe." Another matriarch replied. By this time, most of the Halliwells, including Patty and Prue, had stepped out of the circle of candles. " It looks like she's giving little pieces of it to random individuals."

" Destroying several worlds in the process, but not many."

" Destroyer of worlds. Why is this woman not evil?" Piper growled.

" She isn't!" Grams glared at her eldest living granddaughter. " I told you many times already. Many of those worlds are somewhat useless, and she created a great deal of worlds too, mind you. Especially when she was really alive."

" That demon would kill Chris." Phoebe told Grams. " I saw it in a premonition."

The matriarchs were silent.

" Why Chris though?" Piper asked. " I'd expect it to be Wyatt, being more powerful and all."

" Unless they're trying to get him back for…" Paige trailed off.

" Okay, now I'm really confused here," Piper sighed, " He did not summon ghosts then? And they're getting Chris back for…"

" It's what it looks like." Phoebe said solemnly.

The matriarchs were uncomfortably silent, still.

" What's going on?" Piper asked, noticing this. " What are you not telling us?"

The matriarchs looked at one another.

" We're just as puzzled as you, Piper." Patty assured her daughter. " We don't know the Living Maiden's motives. She could mess up this world, or she could make it better. You never know."

Piper sighed. " And we have that spell to do to figure out what exactly Chris remembered…"

" I want to go see my grandson." Patty walked out of the attic after a moment's pause.

" My nephew!" Prue hopped on after her mother.

Piper chuckled a little, despite the sad glint in her eyes, and followed her mother and older sister out.

oO

_Can't see me…_

" Chris? Chris?" Wyatt sighed. His brother was still avoiding him, despite taking the potion! And now, no matter how he tried, he could not sense his brother. " Chris! Come on! What did I do this time?"

_Can't see me…_ Chris huddled in the closet, like he had all those years ago when Wyatt's minions tore through the house. Only that time, he had Hope with him. Everyone else was dead…

Deep in his mind, he saw the door of the closet open. The mantra in his mind became more desperate as the demon peeked inside and sniffed. Chris held up his hands, ready to fling the demon away from him, but to his surprise the demon merely withdrew his head and closed the door.

He felt Hope's phantom arms around in the darkness. He was shivering too. _Can't see me, can't see me…_ But the mantra was dying down as the immediate danger passed.

Wyatt sighed. " Chris, come on!" Tears welled up in his eyes as frustration began taking over. " Come on Chris, what did I do?"

And suddenly, the memory silenced. Chris looked up from the back of the closet in confusion, and at that moment Wyatt opened the closet door.

" What are you doing in there?" Wyatt asked.

Chris was silent for a moment, trying to evaluate his feelings. He felt the aftershocks of that fear, the numb weariness, but the fear itself was gone.

" I don't know." He whispered quietly, feeling very small. " I don't know."

Wyatt hesitated, and Chris abruptly pulled himself to his feet and climbed out. Wyatt was good. He could sense it through the bond, his brother's worry, and hurt.

" I'm sorry." Chris looked down. " I don't know what's happening."

" Do you still have those visions?" Wyatt asked.

Chris nodded. " Yeah."

" Why didn't you tell Mom and Dad?"

" Cuz they'll be worried about me." Chris looked up at Wyatt. " Please don't tell them."

Wyatt frowned. " I think you should tell Mommy, at least. She could make a spell or somethin'."

" She'll be worried." Chris muttered.

Wyatt stared, brokenly, at Chris. Then he blinked as an idea formed in his mind.

" Hey, maybe we can make a spell."

" We're not allowed to do it on our own! And you promised!"

" They don't have to know!"  
" Wyatt!"

" C'mon! If you don't tell Mom it's never gonna heal by itself!"

" You never know. It might."

" Come on! At least let's just look up a spell."

" But—"

" Just a peek?" Wyatt grinned, his mischievous nature taking over. " Who knows, maybe we'll find something Mom and Dad overlooked."

Chris frowed, not liking the idea, but slowly relenting, as was his nature with his older brother. " Okay."

Wyatt grinned, taking his little brother's hand, and orbed up to the attic, unnoticed by the group of adults and ghosts heading out. The book was closed on the podium, and the candles were still in their circles on the floor. The two boys glanced at each other.

Chris suddenly saw the book from a much higher angle. He was walking over to it with a much more bony hand, clutching a pen. He flipped open the book without taking it off the podium, and onto a blurry page. Underneath, he wrote, " _Vanquished—"_

" Chris, you coming?" Wyatt asked. He was already at the podium, taking the book down. Chris shook his head to clear it.

" Uh…yeah."

The child hurried over to his brother's side. The two boys set the heavy book down on the floor with a soft thump. Once again, Chris saw himself holding a pen and writing something in the book, but then Wyatt opened the book and the vision disappeared.

" Okay," Wyatt started.

" Oh I can't wait!" They heard an unfamiliar voice chirp. " Wait a minute, where are they?"

" Who's that?" Chris asked.

" Are they up here?" Their grandmother's voice asked, and the two boys climbed to their feet.

" Oh my god!" Prue laughed as she peered into the room. " They are even cuter up close!"

Chris and Wyatt glanced at each other as their oldest aunt came over and hugged them.

" I have such adorable nephews!" Prue exclaimed.

Chris gave Wyatt another look. _Was she always like this when she was alive?_

_I dunno._ Wyatt returned, just as confused. They always thought of their aunt as a more mellow type, especially compared to Phoebe on her hyper days. Prue just did not strike them as someone who would pinch a child's cheeks and go " Isn't she sooooooooo cute? Aren't you? Aren't you?"

_I think death as messed with her mind._ Chris suggested, forcing Wyatt to fight down a giggle.

" We have so much catching up to do." Prue ruffled Chris's hair, making the child grimace. " Come on, let's get out of the stuffy attic. It's all I've seen today."

The three headed out. " Oh there they are." Patty smiled.

" Hi Grandma!" Chris greeted, far more comfortable with someone he has seen before.

" Hey champ," Patty looked down at the boy, " You've grown! And so have you, Wyatt."

Wyatt grinned.

" Where are the others?" Patty asked. " Mel? Hope? Henry? The twins?"

" They're at their respective homes." Piper replied.

" Yeah, I should probably bring them over. And Victor too!" Paige offered, orbing away.

" Yeah." Phoebe agreed as she left. " What with the weird non-ghost power. Dad will be a target, I think."

" I can't wait." Prue grinned. " I want to see Mel. You've been pining for her for years, Pheebs."

Phoebe laughed.

" Come on, Chris, I want to talk to you especially." Prue led the two boys out.

oO

Once out of earshot of the rest of the family, Prue turned to the younger Halliwell.

" You're still having them, aren't you?" She asked, suddenly serious.

Chris looked at Wyatt, before turning back to her and nodding mutely.

" You should tell your mom."

" She'll get really worried."

" It's her job to worry, sweetie." Prue knelt down to look at Chris levelly. " Besides, this problem is bigger than you know."

" How?" Chris asked.

" You mean it will make his powers go nuts?" Wyatt asked.

" More than that." Prue sighed. " You two are good boys, but while this might worry your parents it's important for them to know."

" I don't want to tell them." Chris replied firmly, for some reason very adamant about it. " They'll get hurt." _Trying to protect me, like last time…_

Wyatt frowned at this thought, not recalling any particular instance when their parents were hurt so much that Chris would feel so afraid of it. His brother was normally very obedient towards authority and family…

Prue studied Chris, noting how much he looked like Piper. She then turned to Wyatt, noting his blonde hair and blue eyes and sighed nostalgically, wishing she had children of her own. Sensing Chris's thoughts, she relented.

" Alright, if you feel that you can handle it for now, which you might." Prue raised her hand and set it on Chris's shoulder. " But, I want you to remember this: do you know how all this started?"

Chris thought for a while. When did it really start? It started Saturday morning. He told his aunt so.

Surprisingly, Prue shook her head. " Think back, Chris. It started before that."

Chris was eating dinner Friday night. He had felt weird too. He told her so.

Prue smiled. " Did anything strange happen on Friday?"

" No, we only went to the park like all other Fridays."

" What happened at the Park?"

" I played catch with my friends…one of them threw a ball into a tree and…a very pretty lady helped me get it and brought me down before I fell…"

Prue nodded firmly. " Chris, remember what she looked like?"

" Yeah, she's real cool."

" She might not answer your calls. She's not a witch and she's not a whitelighter. But if you really _really _need her help, Chris, I want you to remember the name _Aralyn._ When you need help, Chris, call her name and picture what she looked like in your mind."

" Why her?"

" Because she's the one that caused you to have these memories." Prue replied. " She touched you and that woke your soul, and these memories you have come from another lifetime. One day, perhaps, your parents will explain them to you, but for now just remember, she is the one that started this, and only she can help you. She might not. No one knows her methods and morals anymore. But she just might, and she can. Call for her when you need her."

Chris and Wyatt were both very confused, and in fact, Prue was not really sure what she was doing. She just knew that it was necessary for her to tell this to Chris as soon as possible.

Standing up, she set a hand on each boy's shoulder.

" C'mon, show me the stuff in your room. I wanna see what my nephews have been up to till now."

Chris and Wyatt grinned broadly at her, before taking their aunt to the room.

" That's my bed and that's Chris's…"


	6. Chapter 6

From Beyond the Clouds

Chapter 6

Shaun the Half-Drow was destined to be the first of many powerful beings in the universe. It had been a cause for great concern—the Amadi, guardian deities of the Living Plane, had no idea where all his powers came from, or in fact, where _he _came from either, having not expected his arrival. And for the safety of the universe they had originally planned to keep track of everything. For much of Shaun's childhood they had debated whether or not to rid the plane of this threat.

Obviously, Aralyn's appearance had provided for a great distraction. She was once mortal, like others, powerless, magic-less, ignorant of the universe. Often these systems do what they can to prevent any mistakes, but when mistakes do happen they were often catastrophic. Such was the Grand Disaster, when a whole chunk of the Living Plane was scraped off by a wayward other, and invaders from other systems streamed in for the kill, along with Aralyn's powers. One could say even she no longer belonged to the Living Plane, for after a brief time she was what her powers made her—The Living Maiden, the Sorceress. Her powers were so immense, they made Shaun's still growing abilities pale in comparison for a while, and the Amadi struggled whether to befriend her or get rid of her.

Such was the universe without rules. There was always ambiguity. Any action can lead to thousands of events, all random, all as good or bad as any other. The Amadi, though guardians, were no exception.

So they befriended Aralyn, if only to postpone any inevitable feud. And she did their bidding, getting rid of the invaders and providing a clean path for others to repair the Living Plane. Some worlds were lost, others she had to destroy, but without her the Living Plane would not exist. It would deteriorate, like all living things that cannot heal, and eventually die, taking its worlds along with it.

But once the plane was saved, Aralyn had been faced with a choice. Her immediate purpose was served, and her more long-termed purpose was unclear. In addition, all the struggle made her weary, and having lost much through gaining her powers, she no longer saw fit to use them. So she withdrew for a while, into her sanctuary. And the Amadi were perfectly fine with that. With her out of the way for the moment, they could focus on other tasks. Such as terrorizing the still growing Shaun.

Shaun was not called Shaun back then. He was called Buck. Buck, because drows were vicious things, more vicious than he was, and often beat him because he was weaker than they were, at first. This increased when Aralyn became well-known and Buck was claimed to be her eventual downfall. At length in his madness he escaped from them and fled across the worlds, this time with far greater enemies on pursuit. His heart slowly began to grow cold, and he began to expect nothing good out of anyone. Like a wounded animal, he ran and huddled in what closed spaces he could, out of sight and nursing his wounds and hurts, always alone. A miserable creature indeed!

Perhaps, when they met, Aralyn recalled a brief flicker of what humanity was left in her. Over the years her heart has turned cold toward mortal suffering. Knowledge and wisdom can do that sometimes, especially to a being of great power. She was alone, unique in her power, and perceived the universe through eyes very much similar to the Amadi's. Such happens when one is trapped in a universe without rules. She lost herself, knowing that it does not matter anyway. But upon seeing Shaun some part of her blossomed.

She took him in.

Following that was two pathetically short years where Shaun experienced all the love one could ever experience, which was never enough, but always appreciated. Aralyn called him her son, her treasured one, her ultimate purpose. She taught him how to control his power, the ways of the universe or lack thereof, and healed his battered spirit. Perhaps he was as much her deliverance as she was his, but often such was the case.

At the end of the two years an invader once driven out by Aralyn herself returned with a vengeance. Unlike before, Aralyn was no longer so willing to be of service to the Amadi, more concerned with Shaun's welfare should she fail. Such things all parents had to consider. So when they came to her for help, she declined.

They battled the invader on their own for a while, but it was ineffective. They came to her again. She declined again.

At length the invader began to win, the universe slowly twisting to its needs instead of its original occupants, and Aralyn realized either way she might lose her son.

She chose to risk losing him by losing herself. When the Amadi came again for the third time she accepted and left Shaun.

No one knew how she died except the Amadi for the ten years following. It puzzled everyone that she should die when she was victorious. The invader was driven out, but at a cost, apparently. Shaun lost the one person he loved most, and the one person who loved him. The Amadi took Shaun in as one of their own, as was their agreement with Aralyn, apparently. And for ten years Shaun could say nothing. Ten years later, Shaun suddenly destroyed about half the Amadi, in a rage, apparently. It led many to suspect that perhaps, the Amadi had given in to their fear that Aralyn was becoming too powerful, or that mother and son should not be together for the sake of the plane, and had been the ones to lay the hand. However it was, Shaun had calmed down, after a relatively short period of rage, seemed to have found peace in himself. He sired four children with a mage, and never bothered the Amadi again. The Amadi, mysteriously, never sought vengeance either, nor did they ever seek him out.

And so millions of years passed.

Shaun's descendants multiplied, like all living things, and spread throughout the universe. Some were more influential than others, but they were all treated with respect by the Amadi. They clung to the kindness and love of Aralyn and ensured her memory stayed forever alive, for it was through her efforts that their ancestor, Shaun, was able to live for so long and so revered, instead of the fear which would have been the definite alternative. His descendants were welcome, for the most part, wherever they went, or at least when they were powerful enough to live up to their reputation.

As time passed, however, something strange happened. In the autumn of 2003 on Earth, Aralyn returned. Brisk, cheery, young, she retained everything of her former self except her humanity. Death is a loss, and to return from death requires a sacrifice. Aralyn kept her powers and her memory, but her heart had turned indifferent towards all suffering. This time, if she had met Shaun, she would have turned away. But then, she was no longer quite herself, so one could not blame her.

She was met with some dismay. All who thought of her as a great, benevolent being were astonished and disappointed by her sudden coldness and inconsiderate mockery. She was fully neutral now, helping both evil and good and every other side the living plane came up with. After a while, between some encounters with the Amadi, it became obvious that this Aralyn was not the Aralyn of millennia ago. She did not terrorize, but nor was she nurturing, as myths suggested.

The question then became: Why is she here?

It was noticed that she was giving away power to some random individuals, who all share one thing in common—they never really used her gifts. It was proposed that she was giving away powers so that the living would be left with them when she moves on for good. Strangely, when this was suggested to Aralyn, she laughed and declared she liked that idea, implying that the proposal was wrong. But from then on she always announced that as her duty, her quest of sorts, so it became ambiguous whether she really even knew what she was doing at first, or if she had changed her mind somehow.

It was all very odd to everyone. Aralyn herself offered no answers. It was noted that she often visited descendants of Shaun but usually did not give them anything. And she kept inching towards the area of the plane that had been scraped away long ago, but she never entered that healed area.

In 2012, she did. The first place she headed to was San Francisco.

What did the Elders know?

The Elders knew that she returned in the year 2003. That was also the year when the most demons were slaughtered by the return of another very mortal individual, Christopher Halliwell. They knew Earth was a replica of an archaic world Aralyn came from before she became Sorceress, and that demons were descendants of Shaun. They knew Christopher Halliwell was the most random and unexpected occurrence in the history of Earth because there had been absolutely no sign of his coming before the adult version appeared, unlike every other children of the Charmed Ones. They knew that Aralyn's return has something to do with whatever Christopher Halliwell did to get back to the year 2003, because while her return was nothing short of a major miracle, it was fitting that it might be caused by a relatively minor occurrence. They also knew that Earth would be her final stop before she bids farewell to the living plane forever. And after Christopher Halliwell died, they felt it incumbent to at least provide an effort that he be rewarded somehow, whether blessed with powers they gave him, or better yet, the Great Aralyn herself.

At the demons? They knew more than the Elders. They knew that when their Great Mother lived she had three possessions that identified her—a sword, a staff, and a seal, all bearing her symbol. The seal was the most powerful of the three, and the most useless to anyone other than the Sorceress herself, because it was loyal to only one master. She gave this to her son before she died, and her son left it in a safe place in the universe before he married his wife, the mage. The sword, which she used rarely, and staff, which was completely useless to Aralyn during life because it serves only as an identifier, left with Aralyn to wherever she went in death. Why was this significant? Because in 2003, when Aralyn returned, she had her staff but did not bring with her the sword. In 2004, between the hours Chris died and was born as a child, she suddenly had her sword.

And upon the arrival of the new baby, the demons learned the secrets about the child's soul, and the well of memories it bore from one lifetime to the next. It could mean, after taking all events into account, one of two things. One is that Aralyn has come to give at least one of her powers to this unexpected child. This was, in fact, almost impossible, because Aralyn was no longer moved by children and their innocence. There was very low chance that, given Chris's brother was the Twice-Blessed, Aralyn would even consider him as a recipient. She was far too fair for it. So the demons were not worried that he would receive anything from their Great Mother.

No, they were far more worried about the second, much more likely possibility. Because Chris's existence is too similar to Shaun's. And Shaun would have lived up to the name of the Living Maiden's Bane, had his life continued in ignominy. Like Chris, Shaun was not expected. And he had great power, and a great destiny, one which Aralyn managed to divert with her kindness. Aralyn was no longer kind, and if Chris had a similar destiny, she would do no combating. Which means Chris might have the power to kill Aralyn, or worse yet, since Aralyn might die anyway and would not care for it, Chris might be able to defeat her descendants.

And the demons know that they must do everything they can to prevent this.


	7. Chapter 7

From Beyond the Clouds

Chapter 7

The Halliwell Manor was slightly crowded with its sudden increase in occupants. Thankfully, all of the Halliwell matriarchs seemed to like Billie very much, otherwise the younger witch would have felt a little out of place.

Lunch was an interesting matter. Everyone was interested in Victor, who was more interested in Prue since he was unable to see her for so long and did not appreciate the attention. There were too many individuals, if ghosts had to eat, to fit at the table. Prue insisted she wanted to taste Piper's cooking again, and while most of the matriarchs were curious many of the ghosts decided they would rather play with what seemed to be their favorite descendant all of the sudden—and for some reason it was not Wyatt. The children did not notice, finding most of the matriarchs a little strange, especially the more distant ones. Like Victor, Chris did not really appreciate all the attention, because some of the witches scared him a little. The sisters, their husbands, and Billie, however, did notice this attention. Piper did not mind.

" He deserves a little cuddling." The chef mother declared while dialing the phone to her restaurant. " After everything he's been through."

Prue did not have the heart to tell her that the two hard days over the weekend was nothing compared to what Chris had to face. Chris _and _Wyatt, she had to remind herself, because while Wyatt did not experience the brunt of those memories he certainly was affected more than the other cousins. Given Chris's wish not to worry his parents, Prue had to agree it was his place to tell them, not a dead aunt's. But she did want to talk to Piper about one thing, and for that she needed the Charmed One in private. At least, private from the brother-in-laws and the next generation.

" God, that soufflé was to die for." Prue shook her head. " Only you would be able to whip that up so fast at such a short notice."

" Secret recipe." Piper smiled as she dried a dish and placed it into the cupboard. Prue handed her a wet dish and took another one to begin washing it.

" I need to talk to you about something?"

" About what?" Piper asked.

" About Chris."

" Is he okay?" Piper paused.

" Well," Prue hesitated, wondering how to tell her, " We all know about the Chris that came back…"

Piper knew her sister well. " You want me to tell them."

" I think you should. They did experience it, in a way."

" I can't do that." Piper shook her head, placing the dish in the cupboard and closing it.

" Piper, they have the right to know. They'll probably figure it out eventually."

" Prue, they're just kids."

" They're witches, Piper. Whatever the older Chris did affected this one. And they're one and the same."

" He's got a second chance. I won't destroy that for him." Piper threw the rag on the counter. " I tell Chris and he'll always live with the notion that once he came back and died. How am I supposed to tell an eight-year-old that? And Wyatt, he'll always feel scared that he was turning evil, all because in another lifetime he was—he'll know that he once had the ability to kill and hurt many people, including his own brother. I won't destroy my sons like that."

" Piper, it's better that you and Leo tell him than they figure it out on their own."

" How can they possibly figure it out on their own?"

" Piper, you think demons are stupid or something?" Prue dropped the dish into the sink with a clatter. " They know this Chris. They know the old Chris. At some point those two will start fighting demons like we did. Eventually they'll encounter a demon that talks too much—"

" They all talk too much—"

" And if that demon brings up 2004, what then? You really think you can avoid this? And that blocking potion—Piper, this is just one of many ways Chris could figure it out. And you saw how Wyatt was. He was scared. He was hurt. He'll hurt just like Chris did."

Piper was silent.

" I can't tell them now." The poor mother looked at Prue, eyes watery. " They're still too young. They're just kids. And besides, they don't have to know."

" Piper, Chris has already remembered many things." Prue decided not to mention that he was still remembering, despite the potion. " He avoided Wyatt. You saw."

" He stopped. You saw those two. They're getting along again."

" But he'll have questions. Even if the potion blocked memories from attacking him, he still has the memories he received before he drank that potion. And those memories aren't few either, and you know what they must encompass. For all we know, he might have nightmares about them. He's seven years old now, you can keep them away, but what happens when he gets older? Those dreams won't go away until he understands them."

" How do you know?"

" Because dreams never go away until you understand them." Prue replied. " That's how it is when you dream a memory."

Piper sighed, rubbing her face. " I don't know." She sighed again. " It's hard to think about him too, you know."

_Wyatt had powers from the womb? This is unbelievable!  
_

" Life was tough for him, I think." Piper continued. " But he never complained and he never asked for anything for himself, at least. That time when I was pregnant and the spider demon attacked, I think it was the first time he actually expressed how he really felt about his relationship with Wyatt, or his status, really."

Prue did not ask her what she was referring too. She had a pretty good idea.

" And earlier this weekend, Chris asked me the same question that other Chris did, you know, talking about Wyatt and his shield." Piper closed her eyes. " Chris has the other one's memories but he still has a childish view of them, and he can't hide his emotions that well. So when he…when he asked me why Wyatt was so powerful and he was so weak—ugh, you know what," Piper stiffened, " Can't do anything about that now."

" You'll have to tell him eventually. He'll figure it out on his own, eventually." Prue pointed out. " At this rate, those memories only need a slight nudge for them to spill all over Chris's mind again. When he's older, as I said, he'd have questions."

" I'll talk to Leo." Piper said.

oO

" Whatcha guys doing?" Hope asked. The four-year-old looked at the two boys curiously. Wyatt and Chris were both on their respective beds, with a pillow suspended in the air between them.

" We're bored." Wyatt replied. " They're boring." He gestured downstairs and upstairs, where some of the ghosts were making potions. " We're playing tug of war with telekinesis."

" Can I play?" Hope asked.

" You don't have telekinesis." Chris pointed out.

Hope pouted in disappointment.

" I gotta say though, Paige," They heard their Uncle Henry say as he passed their door, following Aunt Paige upstairs, " These ghosts give me the creeps. I've never seen so many in one place, and here I thought I'd seen plenty already."

" Yeah, well," There was a gurgle of a baby, possibly one of the twins, " This is an unusual circumstance, you know. Usually we call up the matriarchs for a spell, or actually, Grams does, and then, you know. Oooh, that's my girl! Yes, that's my girl…"

Wyatt wrinkled his nose. " I hate it when they do that."

Chris and Hope giggled. Chris was suddenly struck with a memory of following his father and two aunts down the hallway and down the stairs.

_" We have to celebrate!" _His Aunt Paige, viewed from a much taller angle, was saying. She sounded very chipper, and Chris, for some reason, was feeling quite a bit dismayed.

" _I'm the baby!"_ Chris heard himself say, a little adamantly. _" I give you permission not to!"_

Following that was a few more strange remarks from his aunts, before Phoebe suddenly turned around at the bottom of the stairs and asked where his name came from. Chris could not hear the exact words because he felt so frustrated. He gave a resigned reply, something about his grandfather, and then he saw Phoebe and Paige cooing at him, though mostly Phoebe.

_" Okay,_" He said after that was over, thinking to himself that he was definitely too old for this.

" Okay." Wyatt said in the same tone, " He's out again."

" Huh?" Chris blinked.

" Chris looks like a vampire." Hope quipped lightly.

" Huh?" Wyatt looked at Chris, and noticed how pale his brother looked. _Oh no…_

" Chris, you're gonna get sick again. Maybe we should tell Mom and Dad."

" No!" Chris suddenly hissed, which startled both Hope and Wyatt. Chris was never menacing, and the hiss was just that. " I don't want to tell them." He added in a much quieter voice. " They'll get worried."

" What if you faint like last time?" Wyatt pointed out. " They'd be worried no matter what."

" We were supposed to look through the book for a spell." Chris shook his head. " And if I faint I can call Aralyn."

" Aunt Prue said she might not answer. She's not a whitelighter."

" But she helped me last time." Chris insisted.

" When?" Wyatt asked. " You mean _she's _the lady you were telling Mom about?"

" Yeah." Chris folded his arms, for some reason very certain. " She'd answer. She's probably just one of those people who don't answer stupid calls, like if I cut my knee, or something. And Aunt Prue knows, so if anything happens—"

Red suddenly spilled out of the boy's nose and covered his lips and chin.

" Chris!" Wyatt cried, frightened, and Hope stared, dumb with wonder, not really sure what she was seeing. Wyatt hurriedly held his hands over Chris to try to heal, but the pool of blood on Chris's collar slowly spread to the rest of his shirt. Chris grew increasingly pale, and sweat poured from his forehead. The child's eyes closed and his head dipped back, toppling over on the bed.

" Mommy!" Wyatt cried, " Daddy!" His hands were glowing, but nothing was happening, and the ten-year-old was growing increasingly terrified. " Mommy!"

oO

Venas parked her car in front of the Halliwell manor and studied it for a while. Last time she lured Paige out, the demons were able to escape. But for this plan to work long term, and it was a long-term plan, she would have to eventually kill some of her own kind.

Demons were not really known for self-sacrifice, and once she makes her first true kill they will start to doubt her intentions. She was not afraid of the her kin's wrath—Aralyn's gift alleviated that problem. In fact, Aralyn's gift alleviated many problems. Whitelighters cannot heal demons, which meant Venas had to do whatever she could to prevent Paige from attempting to heal her and finding out her true identity. Aralyn ensured she would never be hurt, though Venas will still have to make an effort to avoid getting hit so that Paige notices her invincibility.

She was more concerned about the Charmed One's spawn, and what he could do to reverse the gift. It was the whole point of this mission—to get rid of Christopher Halliwell. Now with the new power she could theoretically kill the young one without fear of attack by the rest of the family. But she had no idea what tricks the boy might have, what powers might awaken, if she attacked too abruptly and too quickly.

No, she will have to stick with the original plan. She will have to gain the family's trust. Most of all, she must gain Chris's trust. Then perhaps, she could give him a poison, or even drive him to suicide, all without magic. Because magic is too easily reversible and countered.

She set her jaw with purpose, and got out of the car, taking the tray of brownies with her. Piper was a cook, but Jane did not know that, and Jane was a cook too. Venas smiled. She shut the door of her car by kicking it with her leg, and walked up the steps to the front door.

Victor answered the door. " Hi…may I help you?"

" Um…" Venas glanced around nervously, " I…well, I'm here to see Paige, and to give her these." She lifted the aluminum foil to reveal the brownies."

" Oh. Are you Jane?" Victor asked.

" Uh…yeah."

" Okay, Paige!" Victor called behind him. " Why don't you come inside?" He offered, stepping back to allow her in.

Once inside Venas was greeted with the sight of dozens of witches, all busy doing one thing or another. It was slightly overwhelming for her. She glanced around, seeing Phoebe and Billie, Paige orbing into the room with her husband and a baby in her arms, and heard Piper's voice talking in the kitchen.

Paige turned around, still saying something to the matriarch, but nodded and focused her attention on Venas.

" Jane!" She greeted happily. " Uh…this is not really a good time."

" Um, yeah," Venas smiled shyly, " I just wanted to thank you for, you know, that time, and…" She lifted the tray of brownies.

" Aw, you shouldn't have." Paige smiled. " It was my job, after all, but I'll take that," Paige grinned at her, taking the tray. " Sorry about this, we're having family issues here. And, well, world issues."

" What's going on?" Jane asked.

" These are Halliwell matriarchs." Paige replied. " They're our ancestors. We summoned them so that demon can't. And, well, there's a lot of confusion going on, because they claim nobody got summoned and they don't know what we're talking about. We're all kind of doing research on this Aralyn figure, and Coop is up There figuring out if he could get any info from the Angels of Death."

Just then Coop materialized in the room.

" Well, Aralyn was alive for a longer time than you guys thought." Coop told the matriarchs, who all turned to him, paying close attention. " She was apparently alive for several years, actually, going around doing random stuff. And the demon summon ghosts. They just weren't…you."

" Huh?" Billie raised her eyebrows.

" Well, you know, earlier with the dark parallel world that's the evil version of us, the story which _you neglected to mention to me before this weekend,_" Coop glared at Phoebe, who just smiled nervously, " Everyone kind of had this double soul going on, and double dead realms. I don't know! But the demon didn't summon _our _version of Prue. He summoned the other side, since it was easier for him to summon evil than to control good, you know?"

" What dark parallel world?" Henry asked. Everyone ignored him.

" So wait, does that mean the good demon in that parallel world also has these powers? Because then wouldn't Prue and everyone be summoned by _him_?" Phoebe asked.

" Er…no. Because there's only one Aralyn."

" So is that world parallel anymore then?" Paige asked.

" I think she screwed up the whole parallel thing when she gave the demon that power and not the other one."

" Oh blast." Leo sighed. " Well, go figure. And I destroyed the mirror. We both did."

" What mirror?" Henry asked. " What happened?"

" Things might get rocky for a while, before it all balances out again. I mean, the demon isn't going to use his powers because if he does he'll mess up the balance between the two worlds, since the other guy doesn't have the powers, and eventually we'll have a mini-Grand Disaster of our own."

" Grand Disaster?"

" You know what I mean!" Coop gestured at the ghosts. " So anyways, summoning our ghosts won't help because they're not the ones he's concerned with. We can send them back and nothing will happen. Besides, last I heard, the Angels of Death and Destiny were all pretty annoyed with what transpired and are currently giving the guy hell. All the ghosts in the world won't be able to help him against the Angels of Death, if I know them at all."

" Oh, okay." Grams stood up. " But I'm hanging around because there is a lot of work to be done still."

" Me too." Prue poked her head out of the kitchen. " I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually miss washing dishes. And my nephews and nieces are too adorable and this is the first time I get to meet them and I'm not missing out on this. Though I'm still washing up the dishes."

Venas bit her lip, and no one noticed her expression of frustration at this new information. They were all too focused on Coop. Noticing that no one seemed to suspect her at all, she took the freedom of sitting down on the couch and listening to whatever else they had to say.

Wyatt's scream cut off whatever new developments may occur.

" Mommy!"

" Wyatt?" Piper called back, heading out of the kitchen. Prue followed. Leo got up from his chair. " Wyatt, sweetie?"

Leo headed up the stairs and the three disappeared. Phoebe, Victor, and Billie followed. Paige hurriedly set the tray of brownies down and orbed away.

_Hm._ Venas thought to herself. _What would a witch, Jane, do?_

She would probably be somewhat curious, but be afraid to intrude. Therefore, she would get up, walk to the stairway, but not go up. So Venas did just that.

None of the ghosts suspected a thing.

oO

" Oh my god!" Piper cried, taking in the blood that was spilling out of her son's nose. Leo hurriedly grabbed a tissue and tore a piece off it, twisting it and inserting it into his son's nostrils. Chris choked a little, his forehead clammy and cold.

" Feel dizzy." He told Leo.

" Did you try healing him?" Leo asked Wyatt. Wyatt nodded mutely.

Prue looked on solemnly, but did not approach her nephew.

" What is it?" Piper asked. " I thought the potion worked!"

Before Prue and Wyatt could answer, Leo replied, " It might be the aftermath of what already happened. Hey buddy, you're not getting any more memories, right?"

Chris shook his head. The edges of his vision was darkening, and he felt woozy and weak—

And then as suddenly as it came it went. Chris blinked, suddenly no longer dizzy, and the tissue in his nose felt uncomfortable. He shook his head slowly and sat up a little.

" I'm okay."

" You sure?" Leo asked.

The bleeding had stopped, which puzzled everyone. Piper took off Chris's shirt and Prue fetched a new one. Piper sighed as she helped Chris put it on.

" Chris, get in bed and relax. Try to take a nap." Leo instructed. He was worried that this was not a normal nosebleed, despite everything. What if it was a tumor? It could be anything. And Wyatt may or may not have the power to heal such a thing. He had to talk to Piper about this.

" I feel fine." Chris insisted, not understanding that just because he felt fine now did not mean he was all right.

" You should rest." Leo said. " Get some sleep."

" I don't want to sleep!"

" I'll stay with him." Prue suddenly offered.

The family was silent for a moment.

" Is that alright, Chris?" Piper asked, after glancing at Prue. She knew why her sister offered to do this.

Chris hesitated, before nodding.

" Wyatt, stay with your brother." Leo told his oldest son.

" Come on, Hope." Phoebe called to her daughter, who ran over to her mutely.

oO

" You really should." Even Patty agreed. " It's not about their mental health anymore, Leo. Wyatt could live with an alternate self being evil. Heck, that parallel world would have an evil Wyatt that may or may not hurt Chris. You never know. But if you keep this from them, those kids might get into trouble. As Piper said, Chris would have questions."

" I'm not saying we _never _tell them." Though Leo would not mind that. " I'm saying they're too young. Maybe when they're older, more mature. Preferably, after Chris is fourteen, because didn't the other one lose Piper after Chris is fourteen?"

" On Chris's birthday." Victor confirmed. " Still, aren't you the guys yelling about how everything happens for a reason? Isn't there a reason why Chris got his memories _now?_ Maybe someone or something is telling you to explain things to him."

" He's seven years old!"

" He's turning eight in a few weeks, Leo." Billie pointed out.

" He's still only eight!"

" He has enough memories to begin wondering."

" Look, guys, I've been trying to convince these four to tell Chris and Wyatt. No dice." Victor looked at Grams and Patty. " We might as well quit while we're ahead, really."

Patty sighed. " This isn't just about whether or not Chris has the right to know."

" Of course it is." Leo insisted.

Piper sighed. " You know what? I'm tired of this. We have a bunch of ghosts in the attic and downstairs. This demon can summon ghosts—"

" But if the Angels of Death are taking care of him it's none of our business." Grams replied.

Piper sighed again. " Should we send them back yet?"

" I get the feeling they don't really want to go." Phoebe answered. " I mean, Prue wants to spend time with Chris, but everyone else is pretty busy with…Aralyn."

Leo paused. " She's the one behind this, isn't she?"

" Well…" Patty began, but Leo interrupted her.

" Where can I find her? I want her to stop messing around with my family!"

" Well, she's not. Not really. And you probably won't find her because, well first, she's no longer in San Francisco, and she wouldn't bother being seen by…well, us." Grams shrugged.

" If she's giving powers left and right, just how powerful is she?" Billie asked.

" More than you can imagine." Patty replied. " There's a reason, after all, she was called the Destroyer of Worlds. That's not a small feat."

The twins began crying downstairs.

" Oh boy." Paige orbed away.

" She's doing a lot of that." Victor noticed.

" Yeah, well," Piper continued to head downstairs from the halfway point the group had ended up on. Leo followed.

" Hey Jane!" Piper greeted with surprise.

" Hey, is everything okay?" Jane asked.

" Yeah." Leo nodded, though his stomach seemed to plummet still further with that. " Thanks."

There was an odd glimmer in Jane's eyes, but it looked like it was just her contacts. Did she even have contacts?

The sky suddenly became dark.

" And that would be the effect of the demon summoning the ghosts." One of the matriarchs quipped. " Hopefully that's nothing to worry about."

" What do you mean, hopefully?" Paige's voice rang out. There was a loud honk outside from a car and a deafening screech of tires, followed by a bang.

" That does not sound good." Phoebe commented. " Paige, turn on the lights!"

" Lights on!" Paige called, and in a swirl of blue all the lights flickered on. " Well, that was random! Did people here suddenly get evil again because I _don't _want to repeat that day!"

Phoebe headed out the door to check on the accident. Coop disappeared, presumably to ask the Elders what was going on. Paige and Henry took care of the twins.

There was another crash, and the sound of alarms.

" We really need to bring day back again. Maybe the Cleaners can blame it on some unexpected eclipse." Phoebe headed back into the house. " Because now we have one car accident on our street and another one a block away from us. Though now the street lamps are on."

" Good old street lamps." Piper answered dryly. " Back upstairs, to the book." She doubled back, forcing Leo to cling to the side of the stairs to let her pass.

Victor went to Henry and stared at the girl in the younger man's arms.

" Never a dull moment in this family, huh." Henry remarked.

" Oh yeah." Victor sighed.

oO

Chris was playing with a very young Wyatt. With blocks. He was too old to be playing these things, and in the dream he was even more so, but Wyatt was too young to play with anything more complicated.

He was thinking to himself about home. Home where perhaps Wyatt was good again. When he first came to the past he had some doubts, but upon seeing the child version of Wyatt he had confirmed to himself that indeed, Wyatt was good at heart.

What would the world be like when he got back?

Maybe Grandpa was right. Maybe Mom—no, Piper, but then again, she was _Mom, _after all, maybe she would still be alive. Maybe Chris would finally get a chance to go to college. Go to med school, just like his Dad. Well, Leo would not give a—but then again, that was a different Leo. Leo was his Dad. This is too confusing!

But maybe Dad would be proud of him. He would be a brain surgeon, though then again, that requires too much—but what else did he want to be? A heart surgeon? Or did he want to go into internal medicine? And Wyatt could be a general. No, that would stink, actually. It took the country ages to get out of Iraq after that spoof George Bush pulled back before he was born—if there were another President Bush Chris doubted Wyatt would salute him as Chief Commander. Maybe Wyatt would be a movie star—but he was enough of a celebrity and besides, being a witch he would not want all that attention from innocents.

Hope would be alive, Melinda would be alive. Mel would probably want to be a movie star. She always loved acting. Hope…Hope would be a lawyer. Or maybe she would be a witch, she was not able to decide before she was killed…

And then all of the sudden the vision changed and Chris saw an Elder, _Gideon was his name, that's right,_ orb into the attic. Little Wyatt was staring, shocked, as Gideon threw Chris into the wall.

Then a whirl of images, feeling the athame stabbing into him, and Wyatt, in Gideon's arms. Then Dad, crying, begging him to stay.

How the blazes was he supposed to stay when he is bleeding to death? His father could be so funny sometimes.

_Oh well. Guess I won't be going to college after all. Won't get married either, but that's right, Wyatt killed Bianca. Who is Bianca again? What? Didn't she betray me earlier? No, she betrayed Wyatt. Wait, who was she again?_

And then resignation. _I wanted to go to college…to Stanford…_

_" No, please Chris, no…"_

Chris woke with a start. Wyatt was already awake and crying. The Twice-Blessed Child felt his brother's life slipping away in the memory and panicked. Prue went to comfort Wyatt first, since the older one was more distressed than the younger one.

Chris was surprisingly calm. Maybe he was too scared to feel anything. He looked down on his chest and saw a small circle of red, right where the athame had stuck. Another memory surfaced in his mind as he took in his brother's weeping, Wyatt's cheeks glimmering with tears and his voice hoarse with sobs.

_I come from the future._ His voice sounded older, more like a man's. _Wait, is that my voice?_

But then he remembered.

_Vanquished…_

_I can reach the cupboard?_

_I am the baby! I give you permission not to!_

_Wait, Wyatt had powers from the womb? This is unbelievable!_

_You either…_

_Oh my god!_ Chris thought, eyes popping open at the sudden realization. _I came from the future once, and I died!_


	8. Chapter 8

From Beyond the Clouds

Chapter 8

It was one thing to experience these visions as mere hallucinations. It was another to fully realize these things happened before. Chris was terrified.

He remembered the room. He remembered moving out of it when Wyatt started middle school. Wyatt wanted his own room to himself. No one suspected it was the beginning of the evil Emperor…

He remembered the house. Towards the end it was no longer a home, but a museum. Cold, harsh, with stale memories, without any of the warmth of family. It was open to the public to gawk and mock at. That time he no longer had any home.

_Stay quiet. Make a noise and they will hear you. They may kill you or get killed…depending on who you draw near, in any case someone will die—_

Throwing the bedcovers aside, Chris nearly fell to the floor. Wyatt, who was playing with one of his toy warriors, sat up from his bed in surprise.

" Chris?" he exclaimed, but Chris ignored him. He had to get someplace safe, get to someplace safe, but the bridge was the only place that brought him peace and he could not go back there because he once did and that brings back too many memories of his father approaching him and accusing him—

" I have to get out of here!" Chris cried hoarsely, but his voice came out in a breathless gasp. " I have to get out of here," The panic was tightening his heart. He could not stand it. He was so terrified.

" Chris?" Prue walked over. " Chris, listen to me. It's alright. Chris, look at me." She knelt down so that she was at eye-level with Chris. " Look at me. Breathe slowly." Chris was beginning to hyperventilate. " Chris, listen to me." She grabbed Chris's arms.

Chris shuddered, tears spilling from his eyes. " Aunt—Aunt Prue—"

" Shh, sweetie, it's alright. You're going to be okay, alright?"

Footsteps sounded on the stairs, with Phoebe telling Paige, " We can write to the school and tell them that one cousin spread the fever to the others. It happens. They should be back tomorrow. I have to have Bill fax me all the documents from the office."

" Hey Phoebe, do me a favor and write that letter to Rodman? You promised to do that two weeks ago." Billie swept past the room. " So far I heard nothing from his secretary."

" Oh shoot, I forgot about that."

" Yeah, you gotta hurry, because that seminar's coming up and I need to know what he's bringing."

" Okay, I'll get to the computer and do that—after we figure out how to bring daylight back again. Send him an email. What's his email address?" The voices faded away.

" I forwarded one of his emails to you. But let's get to the bottom of this sudden night thing first. Why aren't the Elders doing anything?"

Paige's voice was further away now, but they could hear her answering, " Cuz it's not our fault so the only folks who could help are the demons. As if the demons are willing to fix anything they screw up. They live for screwing up our lives…"

Their voices died away. Prue hugged her nephew close to her, soothing the trembling body. She sighed. She was going to have to go soon, and Piper and Leo, well, she hoped they decided to tell him because Chris was getting hurt not knowing.

Wyatt had come to their side, and was standing there helplessly. Prue looked up at Wyatt. Despite being Twice-Blessed, there will be plenty of times when Wyatt feels helpless. Once he finds out the truth, especially, he will truly understand how battered Chris's soul really was…

" Come on, get back in bed. You're still sick." Prue gently guided the boy back. She heard a faint jingle and turned around to find that Wyatt had disappeared.

oO

The attic was empty, even though he thought his aunts had gone upstairs. Wyatt headed toward the book, determination lacing his features.

" For the love of god!" He heard Paige exclaim in frustration. " What now? We're working on it!"

" The Elders?" Billie asked.

" Seems like it." Phoebe replied. " Not Jane though, since she's here."

Wyatt bit his tongue as he sensed another wave of fear seep through the bond. Fear was all Chris seemed to be feeling these days. Sometimes the fear was more real, almost tangible, with undertones of some other emotion that felt dark and untouchable. Other times, the fear seemed to be complete, pure and untainted in its horror. Sometimes he sees the memories, faint shadows and outlines, and those were when it seemed all Chris was made of was fear, and there was nothing else but the darkness and silence and Chris's older voice, quivering.

He turned over a page. The Book of Shadows felt like a living thing on his lap. The tome was old, and listed dozens of demons that no longer existed, thanks to the Halliwell witches. But Chris's problem wasn't a demon. It was a spell gone wrong, or that Aralyn lady Aunt Prue was talking about.

" Wyatt?" Hope's voice rang out. This time Melinda was with her. The two girls peered into the attic cautiously.

" Yeah?" Wyatt looked up.

" Whatcha doin'?" Hope asked tentatively. " Where's Chris?"

" He's with Aunt Prue." Wyatt answered. " I want to look at the book to help him."

" Can we help?"

Wyatt beamed. " Yeah!"

" What are we looking for?" Melinda asked, coming in.

" Dunno. Chris had visions. Maybe a spell to stop them?"  
" What if they go wrong?" Melinda asked. " Mom and Dad always told us never to try spells if they're not around."

" Chris doesn't want Mom and Dad to know." Wyatt answered. " And you two can keep a secret, right?"

The two girls nodded. Melinda frowned though.

" You sure this is a good idea, Wy?"

" I don't think so." Wyatt admitted. " But Chris really wants to keep it a secret."

Melinda looked very unhappy about it, but relented. " Okay."

Hope knew how to read but could not understand most of what she read, so the three agreed most of the work to be divided between Wyatt and Melinda. Hope fiddled around with the various trinkets around the attic, going through boxes to see if there were any toys left over from their ancestors.

" What's that?" Melinda asked after they flipped through almost a third of the book.

" Some kind of spell." Wyatt said. " Looks like it's written in ballpoint pen. Don't read it aloud."

" I'm not stupid, Wy." Melinda glared at him. " What does this do?"

" Recalls the specified period mentioned in the spell marked with the blank line." Wyatt looked at Melinda. " What does 'recall' mean?"

" Dunno."

" Hey," Hope looked up. " Who's he?" She lifted the picture. It showed the adult Chris holding a baby Wyatt. Chris had a slight hint of a smile while Wyatt was grinning.

Wyatt froze, his heart turning to ice. _That man looks familiar._ But something horrible had happened to that man. He just could not remember what.

" Does it say on the back?" Wyatt asked. Usually his mother wrote stuff on the back.

" Says Tris and Why-at," Hope read. Melinda walked over and read it.

" Chris and Wyatt." She looked up.

The world seemed to freeze, and Wyatt remembered a faint image of the nice man playing with blocks, telling him stories he could not understand. He remembered the man, if only because afterwards was that awful period with Gideon in the Underworld…

" He has the same name as Chris." Melinda continued, not aware of her cousin's distress.

" Yeah." Hope giggled. " _Chris._ He looks nice. How come he's no longer around?"

Wyatt orbed out of the room.

oO

" And here I was thinking, no more dealing with freaky parallel universe." Paige muttered as she orbed back to the living room. " As you can see we currently have nighttime when it's two in the afternoon. Doesn't happen even on the longest day of winter, and certainly not in San Francisco."

" I see." The demon nodded. He watched with some interest to the blinking lights of the now silent sirens on the police cars, who had pulled up to the street for the car accident earlier. More sirens were sounding as apparently firefighters and ambulances joined in the fray.

" Whoa!" Piper froze the demon, who easily stood still, unable to break her spell. " What the hell! Paige? Explain!"

" Elders's idea, not mine." Paige lifted a hand to excuse herself. " And they said to even out the odds, we have to allow him to summon _our _ghosts over there and create a little bit of havoc. One of the Angels of Death should be appearing soon…"

As if on cue, a dark-skinned man appeared. He was not like the other Angel of Death Piper encountered years ago. For one thing, he was dressed in overalls.

" Hey Charlie." Paige grinned falsely. " Shall we get to it?"

" Certainly." Charlie glanced at the demon. " Do unfreeze him, Piper."

Piper frowned skeptically for a moment, before unfreezing the demon. The demon glanced at Charlie in surprise.

" We'll be back." Paige guided the demon upstairs.

" Ugh." Piper groaned. No one asked her why.

" Wyatt!" They heard Prue say upstairs. " Where did you go?"

" I went to the attic." Wyatt answered.

" Wy! No fair!" Melinda's voice rang out. " We can't orb, you know!"

" Wyatt, no orbing unless it's necessary!" Piper called up, knowing it was useless, really. Her eldest did not understand what was wrong with orbing. To him it was a natural skill.

The matriarchs, who had been busy doing their own duties, strange as it were, turned around at this exclamation after seeming to discuss among themselves. Some looked up from playing with Paige's daughters. The babies gurgled happily at Piper.

" Okay," Jane, who had kept silent through most of the excitement because she had been observing the family and silently placing tracking spells on them, stood up uncomfortably. " Um…I think I better get going."

" Thanks for stopping by." Patty smiled at her warmly. " The brownies were really thoughtful of you. You didn't have to, but we still appreciate it."

Jane smiled, grabbing her coat from the sofa. " No problem. You are such nice people. I hope everything works out for you."

She played the part to perfection. None of the matriarchs noticed.

" Hope we'll see you around." Victor smiled, leading her to the door. " Well, remember to turn your headlights on, heh. That way you don't get into one of those accidents."

" Yeah…" Jane looked at the blinking scene before her, the various officers speaking to each other. A child was being lifted via stretcher into the ambulance.

" Stay safe." Victor smiled at her.

" I will." Jane forced a smile. Victor shut the door.

" Wow, she's actually been here for a long time." Grams noted, but did not think anything of it. They had other problems to worry about.

" Well," Piper sighed, " Maybe we should…er, send the ghosts back? So the demon _could _summon them to…the other side?"

" Yeah." Phoebe nodded. " That makes sense. Though I wish Prue would stay longer…"

" Since you summoned her already, you should be able to do it again." Leo pointed out. " Unless, of course, something _else _goes wrong, but that will hardly be your fault. Besides, she can't stay here for so long anyway. Prue died, after all."

" Yeah." Piper sighed. " Well, let's go upstairs."

In the attic the Book of Shadows was on the floor, but ever since the children learned how to read that book has always been on the floor at least once every day. Piper picked it up and set it on the podium.

" Alright." She sighed, her voice filled with less duty than it usually was, " Let's do this."

The other two sisters did not move, however, and Piper followed their gaze to the spot on the floor that made her heart clench.

Wyatt was in the attic.

_They will find out somehow._ Piper knew, as her thoughts raced. _They will have questions. It is better that you tell than someone else. Because someone else will not be as kind. And they are young yet, they will believe what you say. They will not doubt themselves. They are still young enough to believe that if you believe in them everything is all right. When they are older this instinct will still be there, but if they find out later, they will have thoughts of their own, regardless of what you say. You should tell them._

Grams folded her arms, the expression on her face stating clearly that she knew this day would come. Patty had pretty much the same expression, only more grim.

" What do we do?" Phoebe asked. Paige slowly bent down to pick up the photo.

" It's okay, Wyatt," They heard Prue's voice say, " It's okay, everything's fine."

" Maybe tell him?" Grams pointed out. " Now would be the time. Or right after now, when we get back and Prue does whatever she was supposed to do."

" Prue?" Patty called. " Prue, it's time to go."

" I'll go look after the kids." Leo offered, slipping out the door.

Prue came in a few minutes later looking solemn, her eyes dark with worry. Phoebe and Paige set up the candles while Piper looked through the book to see which spell would help the demon.

" Done with everything?" Prue asked.

" Here we go." Piper wrote the spell down. " Yeah."

Her older sister looked at her meaningfully. Piper looked down in resignation. Her thoughts wandered back to the old days when the Old Chris was there, constantly reminding them how to take care of their family, how the demons were out there and they must vanquish them. She recalled the little room in P3, Chris's solemn attitude about everything. _He was tall._ She thought. _He was tall and sort of lanky. His eyes were always narrowed so it looked like he was bored. But people with narrow eyes tend to see many things._

She was jerked out of her thoughts by Wyatt's cry.

" Chris! Wait!" And she heard a jingle of orbs.

" Chris?" Prue turned around, even as Piper started toward the door. " Chris, are you still there?"

Wyatt ran out of the room. " He orbed away." Wyatt's face was pale. " I can't sense him Mommy!"

And icy cold fear penetrated Piper's heart like a knife. " Paige?" She turned around.

" I think little Chris learned something from old Chris." Paige said uncomfortably. " At least, I hope that's the case. Because it's either that or he's—"

" In the Underworld." Phoebe finished.

There was a distinct pause of silence.

" Sending them back will have to wait. I want my son back."

" Scryer!" Paige orbed the crystal to her. " Map!"

The matriarchs swarmed out of the attic, all intent on helping the family. After all, staying in the attic was hardly useful now.

oO

Every memory hurt, even the happy ones. That store where his mother used to shop for clothing, even in the other life. There was always something dark and sinister to couple that memory. The house was full of memories, the attic, the room he and Wyatt shared, the streets on the way to school, the school, the bridge where as an adult he used to sit and look over the city, both present and future. In the future he thought of the past, in the past he thought of the future. There was never any rest, never any peace, even the memories where he felt peaceful were filled with turbulent emotion, like his dead self was crying in outrage at having all of this ripped away from him.

Chris wanted to escape. He wanted the memories to stop. He did not want to think about getting an A on his calculus test, missing the ACT's because his brother, but Wyatt was not like that, but he could not go to college because his brother had kidnapped him—how the heck was that even possible? And the ACT's were supposed to be harder now, but he still had to take the SAT II's, he had to take two more before the college applications, he wanted to go to Stanford, and if not Stanford than U. Michigan because their campus was wonderful, and if not U. Michigan than Carnegie Mellon because their computer science department was the best in the country but what the heck is Carnegie Mellon? He has never heard of it. The only colleges he heard of were UCLA and Stanford and Berkely and MIT and Harvard and Princeton because everyone came from there and they were all smart there but Harvard was too far away from San Francisco—

There were no more universities in the future. It was kind of moot point. All the professors were imprisoned. All those people ranting about dystopia had no idea, really, how bad it could get, especially when the Emperor is not only tyrannical but the most powerful being Earth has seen in years—

He found himself in a dark alley. _Demons lurk in the dark alley. Act like one of them, it can get you information. _But Chris remembered his mother telling him never to wander off alone. _Staying alone is safer. It is less suspicious, and no one gets hurt._

The old Chris's instincts and the child's original intuition warred against each other, rendering him completely unaware to the demons watching him with interest. None of them attacked him, however. They were all disguised as muggles. A few licked their lips in anticipation, but with a will unheard of in demons they managed to keep their hands to themselves and allow the child to go by safely.

_Look behind you, always. And do not orb. If you orb they will know and they might sense where you go and they will lay a trap and bring you to Wyatt._ He strengthened the shields in his mind to prevent his family from sensing him. _Because if Wyatt knows where you are you are doomed._

Chris began to cry.

The demons looked at each other in the darkness. Under the cover of the black sky it was possible for them to stay hidden from the distressed boy. They wondered whether they should strike the blow now.

But Venas's orders were firm, and she herself was powerful. The Underworld now knew of the two demons given the gift from the Great Mother, and they cannot disobey her.

Playing to the rules, one of the demons, disguised as a young teenager, stepped out.

" Hey," He called to the sobbing child. The sobbing instantly ceased, and Chris looked around in terror. " Yo, dude, it's just me, man. Hey, aren't you a little too…well, little, to be out on your own? What, with the weather or whachamacallit all nutty like this?"

" Don't come any closer!" Chris held out his hand, ready to telekinetically throw the older boy away. He did not care if he exposed magic. Magic once was exposed—there was no helping that. And there were other threats besides demons to young boys and girls. " Don't you dare come any closer!"

" Yo, chill man, c'mon." The demon held up his hands. " Look…no weapons? Hey, you look like you're lost. This ain't the place for kids like you to be wandering it. Alright, alright, I won't come closer, but don't you want to go home, kid?"

" I'm fine by myself, thank you." Chris replied, in a tone that did not sound like himself. There was a crazed light in his eyes, hidden only by the shadows of the night. He was thinking back to the time when he and Wyatt were ambushed, or rather he was ambushed and Wyatt was there with him one moment, and on their side the next—

" Kid, ye really should get outta here," The demon urged. " I mean, all kinds of nutters wander around in these alleys."  
" I know." Chris smiled, almost a smirk. " I'm fine on my own, thank you. Now please leave."

Chris could only see the silhouette of the man, but somehow he knew the other was frowning. He relaxed his guard slightly.

" Kid, it ain't right to leave you alone here like this."

" I am fine on my own."

" At least let me call the police."

" Toss me your phone. I'll call." Chris replied, knowing somehow that the other could fake it.

The demon was at a loss. He did not have a phone. All he could do was conjure up illusions.

At his silence, Chris began to panic again. Should he orb? They might follow him. Then he pulled a classic trick.

" Don't come any closer!" This time he looked past the teenager, into the darkness. " Who are you?"

" What?" The demon whirled around, searching in the darkness. Chris orbed as quickly as he could to the only place that felt safe now—the bridge.

oO

" So now the only light source is ultraviolet light, you say. And in this other world not even shadows stand a chance."

Yulan Huang nodded. The lights went out and Yoko went to search for matches. Yon Eun handed Aralyn a cup of tea.

" Oh, is it green?"

" Fresh."

" How delightful. But you were saying…alright, so I threw everything off balance, in that case. Hm, interesting."

" For you." Yulan replied dryly. " We're the ones suffering here."

" But suffering is good!" Aralyn replied chirpily. " But you are saying I should give the demons over there some powers to even things out? I cannot do that. If you want to restore the balance you will have to call the Amadi. About time they clean up some of my messes, after all the times I have cleaned up after theirs. Besides, I heard that the one with the summoning powers is currently dealing, head over heels, with the Angels of Death on both sides, and the other one is avoiding any hits because she does not want her whitelighter to know she is special. Plus, they already summoned a demon over to this side. I am not certain how they are going about this, but I expect you should have daylight soon, and will keep it for quite a while. Of course, until, since demons are naturally stupid, they forget and use their powers again. But you people seem quite capable of looking after yourselves."

Yulan looked at her grimly, in the light of the candle. " Perhaps not for long. There is a possibility of this realm plunging into turmoil. All your gifts would go to waste then."

" Then to waste they go." Aralyn answered. " I hardly care. And plunging into turmoil is something all worlds love doing. All the so-called good worlds love talking about order but, _they all secretly love chaos._ The only place that is orderly is the Well of Memories, and I tell you, that place is still very messy for something that is static, compared to the rest of the plane."

Yoko sighed audibly. Aralyn grinned at her.

" A Chinese, a Japanese, and a Korean." She commented. " What the blazes happened to the rest of Asia?"

" They were not influential enough on the political scale." Yon Eun replied dryly. " How should we know?"

" Well the Elders on this side sure are biased. I would think they would include some Filipinos. Those people are cute."

" Perhaps they have their own power of three." Yoko replied. " For us it was hard enough. I did not enjoy learning Chinese."

" You already know the characters." Yulan pointed out.

Aralyn laughed. " You three are adorable. I would give you something for that, but I am afraid there is nothing I have left that would be of much use to you."

" You never give anything useful to anyone."

" Quite correct. Except there is one thing I do have that I must select for carefully. Two things, rather. See, I was never fond of carrying this staff, and this sword was moot point and apparently the Fates agreed, until, oh, about eight years ago, when it hit me on the head while dropping out of the earth. It was not until I actually started carrying both around that I realized what these two things were good for."

The three witches did not ask her what they were. They knew already.

" Still kind of moot point, but I could see why mortals should have it now." Aralyn replied. " And whatever brought me here was supposed to have it, I believe. The issue is, I think whatever that clicking thing in San Francisco is what made me bring these two worthless artifacts. Now the issue has become, there are apparently two San Franciscos, which means _two _things brought me back. But you know how the sword and the staff belong together."

" Hm." Yoko uttered, realizing the dilemma.

" Now you see why I cannot really afford to care about the balance between two realms. If you really are so concerned about this than you should take your issues to the Amadi, however you wish to reach them. Now I have to decide, should I leave this world for the other, or should I stick around? Because this world is getting boring."

" You took away daylight." Yulan pointed out.

Aralyn laughed. " I like you, Yulan. All three of you. My, I think I would give you something, but it has nothing to do with my abilities. You girls better choose your husbands wisely in return for this, since this is all living is about nowadays. They will love you to the end. I suggest against marrying a Filipino though. Their magic is a little strange. Now, this realm is getting quite dull, therefore I shall take my leave and see how the world fares when Goths rule the earth. We will not meet again, I expect."

" Farewell." Yon Eun said.

" Yes." Aralyn mused. " That is the right word. Farewell." She disappeared.

The three witches looked at each other.

" Poor Halliwell." Yulan sighed. " She missed him."

oO

" We had him in our grasp."

" He orbed away though." Venas pointed out. " Such odds, even so little, are not good enough. We carry through the plan, the witches will never know. It has full potential of success."

There was one thing that worried her, however. No plan is flawless. There was a key element that might spoil her strategy, and unless she identifies it, it might very well ruin everything. She could not pinpoint what that element was though, and therefore could not combat it. Even so, things were going nicely. The demons had established themselves as innocents, or at least the one disguised as a teenage boy did. The next time Chris sees him, the child might lower his guard.

Daylight slowly seeped through the clouds. It was actually seven in the evening, but the sun was low and perhaps light could get away with it.

" The child is on the bridge."

" Keep track of him." Venas replied. " In the meantime, we have a battle to stage." She transformed into Jane, turning to the darklighters. " Remember to use the fake arrows until she appears."

The darklighters nodded. The other demons shimmered away. Venas laid out all the cups and pans to look like she had been cooking. She then turned on the water, the signal for darklighters to start.

They began firing at the walls.

" Paige?" Venas called, ducking under the table and using her powers to fling the furniture around, " Paige, help!"

oO

" Ugh, no!" Paige cried. " It's my charge, Jane. I gotta go."

" What? Wait—" But Paige had already orbed away. Piper growled in frustration.

" Didn't get anything," Phoebe called from the map. Coop appeared in bubbles of red. " Oh good, day's back. That's good, at least. No Chris?"

" Nope." Phoebe's tone was deceptively light.

Leo and Prue were busy with the children, especially Wyatt, who had started crying ever since the map was taken out. Normally two-year-olds do not remember much, but Wyatt remembered Chris clearly, how he used to put up his shield whenever Chris was around, and Chris, running for him before getting stabbed and all Wyatt could do was watch, frozen in a shock that could not even make its way to his face.

" It's okay, Wyatt," Prue assured him, " We will find Chris and everything will be alright."

Phoebe sighed, her arm getting tired from holding the crystal up. Suddenly, her vision flashed and her arm was jerked back as she was pulled into a vision.

_" Oh._" She heard, and the vision whirled around to show a rather exasperated Aralyn. _" What happened to all the fighting?"_

_" Great Mother…we did not expect—"_

_" Do not 'Great Mother' me now, it is obvious the clicking came from here. Thanks a lot for not telling me anything. But what were you guys fighting over?"_

The vision focused purely on Aralyn, who was perhaps the only one standing on that side. It did not show Phoebe who she was talking to. The Charmed One could only listen to the exchange.

_" Great Mother…"_

_" Stop it." _Aralyn walked closer, but the vision's point did not move so it appeared she stepped closer to some kind of camera. _" And I know what you are wondering. What the blazes is she doing here? Well believe it or not this area is more interesting than the alternate one. I am so tired of the color black. What is that fellow doing over there? Were you people fighting despite the fact that you thought I was leaving? Scheming conniving little bastards! But this is an interesting setting you chose, on the top of a bridge with a bunch of trucks waving at us from down below," _Here it appeared she was glancing down thoughtfully._ " How did all of you fit up here? Are there more on the other platforms? There are! What kind of bizarre gathering is this?"_

_" He is the unprophesized one, Great Mother!" One voice cried. " Save your children, Great Mother!"_

_" I have no children, thank you very much. And what, was there a prophesized one?"_

_" It was Wyatt!" Someone in the background had called out to her._

_" Wyatt was the prophesized one? And the unprophesized one is that boy over there? What, were you trying to kill him? Who cares if he was not predicted? I hardly care about Wyatt, let alone his unpredicted brother."_

_" If we do not kill him he can destroy us all…he already has, almost."_

_" An eight-year-old—that kid eight or seven? Already lived for _so _long that he nearly destroyed all the demons," _Aralyn rolled her eyes. _" While his ten-year-old brother who was all twice blessed decided to sit back on his hunches and cry to his mother. Oh my god, our so-called Great Mother was born yesterday."_

_" Kill him for us, Great Mother. We cannot do it ourselves, and it is but a little use of your power."_

_" Kill him for you? You are right. It is a little use of my power. Alright then—"_

Phoebe started out of her vision with a gasp. " The bridge!" She called out. " Chris is on the bridge! Hurry!"

Coop disappeared in a swirl of red, and Phoebe rolled over, gagging and shivering with nausea. " Oh my god," She whispered, " They are going to kill him—the demons, and Aralyn was going to help, oh my god! For revenge, I think, for the other—" She choked and broke into coughs. " Hurry and get him back, Coop," She whispered urgently.

" Easy there," Leo helped her up, " You're all right."

" At least he wasn't in the Underworld." Piper said grimly.

" Guys, come on, let's go to the kitchen." Henry gathered the children and herded them out of the living room.

oO

" Why would Darklighters attack _you_?" Paige wondered out loud as she helped Jane stand up. Jane brushed herself off.

" Beats me." Jane answered.

" You're not a whitelighter, and they like whitelighters more." Paige frowned. " Though if they're collecting bounties I think that would make sense, but you're a new witch."

" Yeah."

" Which means they might be targeting me then."

Jane was silent.

Paige scowled. " Go figure." She sighed, rubbing the back of her head. Jane's eyes suddenly widened.

" Behind you!" she cried out. Paige wasted no time ducking, pulling Jane down with her. The arrow struck the wall. Paige reached out a hand. " Arrow!" She cried.

The arrow responded in a series of orbs, and Paige directed it back to the darklighter, who shimmered out of the way just as more shimmered in.

" This is not good." Paige realized when the two of them were surrounded. " This is not good at all."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

" Jane," Paige whispered, " I'm gonna orb you to the house, okay? Get my sisters for me."

" What about you?" Venas managed to ask, knowing that this was a natural thing to say, yet feeling almost disoriented by the sudden knowledge that she had _succeeded._

" I have been cornered by darklighters before." Paige replied. " I can hold my own even if I can't beat them by myself. Go!" With a wave of her hand, she orbed Venas out.

Venas had not counted on how thoroughly _sickening _being orbed felt. When she materialized before the sisters, she had to catch her breath for a few seconds.

" Paige is mobbed by darklighters." She said to the bewildered sisters. " You have to go to her."

" _How?_" Piper exclaimed. " We can't orb! And I'm not taking Wyatt into a nest of darklighters!"

" Potion!" Phoebe ran to the kitchen. " So glad I made some!" Venas heard her call.

" Are you hurt?" Piper asked.

" I'm fine." Said Venas, shaking her head, still under the effects of the orb. " I got thrown around, but I'll be alright."

" This is turning out to be a lousy day." Piper muttered. " Phoebe! Hurry up we have to save Paige!"

" I'm coming I'm coming!" Phoebe ran over. She threw the potion down at the feet of both sisters and in a swirl of smoke, they disappeared.

" That was easy." Venas said to herself, before stretching her senses to look for the child. The boy was still at the bridge. With a feral smirk, she shimmered out of the house.

oO

Wyatt struggled not to cry as he listened to the rest of his family worry. He was worried too, but never had he felt more helpless. Chris was invisible to him—he had no idea why his little brother would just shut him out like that. But it must have something to do with the older Chris.

He remembered now. His father had been mad with grief, and he had not quite understood just what happened, especially since, just as the older Chris had left, all of the sudden he had a baby brother in the world, taking his mother's attention away from him.

But whatever had happened so many years ago was hurting his little brother _now_, and Wyatt did not know what to do.

" I wish I could find someone who _can _solve this." He said sadly to Melinda. " So they can help Mommy and Daddy and Chris,"

Without warning, he was enveloped in blue orbs and taken, by the spell he unknowingly incanted, out of the house. As the sparkles dimmed, he looked around, confused and frightened.

" What's this?" Said a kindly voice. Wyatt looked up to see an Asian woman, clad in green, holding a staff. She looked very formidable and powerful, but very relaxed and approachable. Right now, she was looking at him curiously.

" This is no place for children." Said the woman, gesturing at the vast empty darkness around her. Though it was almost pitch black, Wyatt did not sense _evil_, just emptiness, and he could see the woman clearly as if there had been light all around. " I'm trying to leave. Though it's proving to be a bit tricky."

" Who are you?" Wyatt asked, bewildered.

" Are you lost?" The woman approached him. " Of course you are. My name is Aralyn. What's yours?"

" I'm Wyatt." Said the boy, reluctant to give his last name.

" Wyatt, huh." Said Aralyn. " Why is that name familiar? Oh! You're that King Arthur with the twice-blessed what's-it. Say, you're quite a bit younger than I thought you would be, but that does explain how you were able to make your way here. _Why _you would want to is the next question, however. Why are you here?"

" I…" Wyatt was at a loss. " I wanted to help my brother, Chris." Remember that he had inadvertently recited a spell, he turned to her with renewed urgency. " Can you help him? I can't find him and he's really hurting…"

" You have a brother?" Aralyn frowned, her fair features contorting in dissatisfaction. " You have a brother…"

Silence fell. Wyatt wished he could say something, but he simply did not have the nerve.

" I'm intrigued." Said Aralyn at last. " Mind you, I won't necessarily help you. I have lost most of my powers, giving them away and such. But you obviously love him enough to seek me out, which is more than any other nine-year-old has done. You are nine, correct?" Wyatt nodded mutely. " Very well. Where is your brother?"

" He…he's lost. I can't find him."

" Well, you found me. Of course you can find him."

Seeing her point, Wyatt stuttered, trying to think of something that rhymed. " Take me to Chris…so we can fix this?"

" Lame!" Aralyn remarked, as blue orbs enveloped them both. " But I suppose in the brink of a moment it would do for a nine-year-old."

When they materialized, they were on the Golden Gate Bridge. Wyatt gasped and tensed when he saw the demons that collected on the platform. He did not even see Chris at first until he accidentally spotted him, at the other end, shuddering in terror. _Orb!_ He mentally thought to his brother, but his brother seemed too shocked to do anything, or perhaps, he seemed to be focused entirely on the spells that were being thrown his way and not that help had arrived.

As soon as the two of them appeared, however, the spellfire ceased.

" Oh." Said Aralyn, after a silence. " What happened to all the fighting?"

" Great Mother…we did not expect—"

" Do not 'Great Mother' me now, it is obvious the clicking came from here. Thanks a lot for not telling me anything. But what were you guys fighting over?"

" Great Mother…"

" Stop it." Aralyn left Wyatt's side to walk forward, sounding exasperated. " And I know what you are wondering. _What the blazes is she doing here?_ Well believe it or not this area is more interesting than the alternate one. I am so tired of the color black." Confused, Wyatt could only stare, trying to make sense of what this woman was saying now. " What is that fellow doing over there? Were you people fighting despite the fact that you thought I was leaving? Scheming conniving little bastards! But this is an interesting setting you chose, on the top of a bridge with a bunch of trucks waving at us from down below," She broke off to glance down. " How did all of you fit up here? Are there more on the other platforms? There are! What kind of bizarre gathering is this?"

" He is the unprophesized one, Great Mother!" One voice cried. " Save your children, Great Mother!"

_Jane?_ Wyatt thought, looking at the familiar woman. _What is she doing with the demons?_

" I have no children, thank you very much. And what, was there a prophesized one?"

" It was Wyatt!" Someone in the background called out to her.

Hearing his name uttered startled Wyatt out of his stupor. _Oh no,_ he thought. Did he just invite a demoness? Why did the demons keep calling her Great Mother? He looked over at Chris, who finally caught his eye. _We have to get out of here!_

" Wyatt was the prophesized one? And the unprophesized one is that boy over there? What, were you trying to kill him? Who cares if he was not predicted? I hardly care about Wyatt, let alone his unpredicted brother."

" If we do not kill him he can destroy us all…he already has, almost."

Panic grew as Wyatt listened. They were going to convince her the other way. How had the spell gone wrong? He should have watched what he was saying!

" An eight-year-old—that kid eight or seven? Already lived for so long that he nearly destroyed all the demons," Aralyn rolled her eyes. " While his ten-year-old brother who was all twice blessed decided to sit back on his hunches and cry to his mother. Oh my god, our so-called Great Mother was born yesterday."

" Kill him for us, Great Mother. We cannot do it ourselves, and it is but a little use of your power."

_No!_ Wyatt screamed in his mind, and he prepared to run to his brother. If this woman starts getting any ideas she will have _him _to deal with!

" Kill him for you? You are right. It is a little use of my power. Alright then—"

" _Chris!_" Wyatt screamed, darting to his brother. But his brother only stood where he was, frozen like a statue at all the events that had happened._ Orb, Chris! Orb!_

" Staff!" Someone yelled, and Wyatt turned his head around to see three most welcomed figures in the world.

" Get away from my sons!" Piper cried, flicking her arms out.

Aralyn had her arm raised to strike with her staff, which now materialized in Paige's hands. Though the Charmed One's magic worked on her weapon, Piper's power did not affect the woman in the least. She looked amused, and lowered her arm. The wind picked up and sent her hair waving behind her head to the side. She looked like an Angel, dangerous and terrible.

" Chris! Wyatt!" Phoebe cried, holding her arms out to her nephews. " Come here!"

This time Chris jerked into motion. He and Wyatt both raced toward their aunt. On the two sides of the bridge's platforms, the witches and demons faced each other, with Aralyn in the middle, arms hung loosely at her sides, grinning.

" Jane," Paige noted. " You were a demon."

Aralyn turned her head to look at Jane. " Venas."

Jane, or Venas, bowed. " Great Mother."

" Wyatt, Chris, are you alright?" Phoebe asked. " Chris, you're hurt."

" It's only a scratch, Aunt Phoebe." Said Chris in a small voice. And he was right—it was only a scratch. " I slid across the platform and scraped my elbows. But none of their spells hit me. I blocked them all, except the ones I dodged."

" Oh baby." Phoebe hugged Chris to her. " And Wyatt! I thought you were at the house!"

" He came to bring me." Aralyn pulled her staff out of Paige's hands with an invisible, yet effortless, force. She paused for a second. " Wait. I don't actually need this thing. Why did I bother doing that?"

" I wanted to help Chris." Wyatt felt tears well up in his eyes. He felt like he had done something terribly wrong. " I just wanted him to get better!"

" I know honey." Said Phoebe, wiping his tears away with her thumb. " Hush. It's gonna be alright."

" I don't care who you are." Said Paige vehemently. " You leave my family alone!"

But Aralyn was not even listening to her. Her focus was entirely on Chris. Something flickered in her eyes as she studied him, but from where the sisters stood, they could not see what it was.

" Christopher." She stated. " That is your real name?"

Chris stared at her.

" Come here." Aralyn extended her hand.

oO

Chris recognized her even through the pumping adrenaline. He had materialized on the bridge to find the demons waiting for him. In the desperation of the moment, they had broken through the Elders' spells and protection to lie in wait, and only the adult Chris's memories prevented the boy from getting killed. But he was exhausted, his young body not used to the rigor of fighting so many demons at once, and he wanted nothing more than to sink into his mother's arms and go to sleep.

Yet while there was nothing strictly benevolent about this woman, there was something that compelled Chris to obey her. He stepped forward, away from Phoebe's hold, even as he heard his aunt protest. Step, step, and he was right in front of the woman. Her hand was still extended, so Chris reached out to take it.

He felt the older Chris drain from his mind as soon as their skin made contact. He looked up to see a shadow of the older Chris standing where he was, his image a projection, like a ghost. The ghost stepped out to become a distinct entity, solidifying. Aralyn maintained her hold on Chris's hand.

" Christopher Perry Halliwell." Said the Great Mother. " The Elders hinted at your existence, but they have said far less than you deserve, I see."

For the first time, her voice sounded subdued, with no trace of humor. Her eyes were intent and grave.

Young Chris was shy. Old Chris was not as timid.

" What do you want?" Asked the ghost. " Unless you plan to help me, leave us alone."

" You know who I am." Said Aralyn.

The old Chris was silent.

" You broke through time to restore order." Continued the Living Maiden. " You perished in your quest and merged with the new timeline you have created. Despite the tendency towards Good, you were willing to commit acts of evil. You have accomplished a great feat, young Halliwell."

The older Chris looked at his younger self. His face was oddly expressionless. " Ever since I met you I have been waking." He said. " My past is no longer relevant to this timeline. Erase me. That's all I ask." Behind them, Piper gasped.

Aralyn did not reply for a moment. A heavy silence fell. Even the demons were afraid to move or speak.

" I have no power to erase you." She said at last. " I never have. You are part of him, even if you are no longer the whole. You stepped through time and reality and had brought with you these remnants of yourself that now haunt him. It was a risk you knowingly took, and a risk I cannot eliminate. Some rules of this plane cannot be bent or broken."

The old Chris gritted his jaw but kept his peace. The young Chris looked up at the strange woman and asked, " What will happen to me?"

Eyes warming, Aralyn looked at the young child. " A soul that transcends time and reality." She murmured. " You are one remarkable child, aren't you? Hailing from a hopeless time in a friendless place, you enter a world of your own making." She lifted her staff and held it in front of the child, letting go of his hand. The older Chris zipped back into the boy's head, so that the child actually stumbled a little. Burdened again with the new memories and new knowledge, he looked at the staff with trepidation.

" See this?" Aralyn bent down to the seven-year-old's level. She wrapped one arm around his shoulders and turned him to face the staff she held out with her other hand. " I have had this ever since I gained my powers as Sorceress. It was meant to store some of my magic, but I had so much that it was rather useless. So it soon became merely a statement, a symbol of my authority. When I was alive, and when I returned from death, the first thing people would recognize is this staff. This staff made me more than another face. It is why these demons you see there, recognize me as their so-called ' Great Mother'."

Chris stared at the staff, not sure what to make of it, or what she was saying.

" I have many in my debt." The Living Maiden said softly. " Many who could never repay me, whose entire lineage owes me their allegiance." She released Chris and straightened, lifting her staff so that she held it horizontally in her hands. The wind picked up, and Chris knew that a life-changing moment was about to take place.

" I never thought I would give this away to anyone." Said Aralyn with a smile. " But I can see why the demons are so desperate to get rid of you. You will always be a threat, but never so much as now. Christopher Perry Halliwell, you come into this world from a life without friends and family. I now give you all friends from beyond the clouds. May you never be forced to walk this life alone and unaided."

Thunder shook the sky—a transfer of authority had taken place, more powerful than any single magical skill. Despite his youth, Chris knew the significance of this move. He raised his hand and accepted the staff. It felt light in his hands, and warm, as if it were alive. There was no magic in it except the spells that prevented it from snapping or chafing, but he had been handed the most powerful weapon in the universe.

" Glory is in wisdom." Aralyn suddenly smiled. " So stay wise. It is long past my time to leave, but I think this was what needed to be done. Farewell, children."

oO

_Whiff…_She was gone. The world stilled to a calm. Chris held the staff, sensing its owner pass from this existence. Feeling lost and shocked, he glanced at his family, at Wyatt, and then at the demons.

" Command us, Heir of the Great Mother." Venas instantly bowed. All the demons followed suit.

" What the hell…?" Piper exclaimed.


	10. Epilogue

From Beyond the Clouds

Epilogue

_Fourteen Years Later_

" Photo! Photo photo," Wyatt heard Chris call, " Come on dudes let's get together quick, before the others steal the spot!"

The graduates swarmed over, many of them friends, and Chris leaned over one of the girls so that his cap looked lopsided on his head. " First a goofy one!" He demanded.

_Snap!_ " God that was so dorky." Said one of the graduates who took the picture. " Alright guys! For real this time! Smile!"

" I am so proud!" Phoebe was jumping up and down.

" Hey, he's _our _son." Piper said to her sister. Leo was distracted, taking his own pictures of the unsuspecting graduate. " What are you all excited about?"

" Cuz he's _our _Chris!" Phoebe stuck her tongue out at Piper. " Say, I had no idea Chris is so tall."

" It's because Wyatt here is taller." Piper patted Wyatt's arm.

" Seems like yesterday when the two of you were wee high—"

" Okay Aunt Paige." Wyatt interrupted in a semi-long-suffering tone. He brightened as his brother looked his way and gave him a thumbs up. " Yo Chris! Hurry the hell up so that we can take a picture too!"

" We have until tomorrow morning when I have to return the cap and gown!" Chris called back. " Some of my friends are leaving in an hour!"

" Pfft. Friends." Wyatt made a face at Chris. " You and your smelly friends!"

" Your friends smell!" Chris laughed, before getting tugged back by one of the boys.

" Come on we have to take a picture of us and the giant hairball!"

Wyatt grinned. It was a bit odd to see Chris so popular, but then he went to the right college for his personality. Stanford was a geeky school no matter how hip the kids try to be. He wrinkled his nose. _Who uses the word 'hip' these days? I need to get that apartment and get out of mom's house._

" Hey Chris! Wait up!" Melinda and Hope called, and the girls ran after their cousin. Wyatt watched, keeping track of his brother through his own mental link. He had never felt Chris so excited. Perhaps it was just the contagion of adrenaline going around among all the new college graduates.

Ever since the Living Maiden handed over her staff to Chris, Chris had stopped having nightmares. It was strange and troubling because at first he would take that staff everywhere, to bed, to school, to the park, and refuse to let go of it. But eventually it became apparent that the staff was Chris's source of security, and knowing it was there made it easier for the boy to face the memories of his other self. Piper and Leo decided to let Chris grow out of this new habit on his own, which Chris did.

They never quite understood what the Sorceress meant when she said that she gave all friends from beyond the clouds, but they had a fairly good idea what that came with. The demons as well, gave the Charmed Ones no further trouble, even though Chris never gave them any commands or used his newfound authority in any manner. But as the years went by there were some newcomers to their world that certainly did not belong anywhere on Earth, just to see Chris or seek his advice, and even Elders seemed to take extra care of Chris. Aralyn might not have been pure good or evil, but she certainly had enough friends to last lifetimes, and now, apparently, they have all sworn allegiance and loyalty to her heir, who really only inherited her staff.

But it seemed the staff was enough.

Chris never used his power. And that was probably what ultimately made him so special in Aralyn's eyes, Wyatt decided. The Sorceress had ultimately not only helped Chris, but also helped Wyatt as well. Even when he learned of what his other self had done, all the acts of evil and cruelty he had committed to innocents and to his own family, it was hard to indulge in guilt when one realizes that his other self had been indirectly responsible for Chris's eventual prosperity. _You will keep me in check and I will keep you in check._ Chris had told him. _You have your balloon Twice-blessed powers and I have everything else. We are evenly matched._

_So glad we're on the same side._ Wyatt had laughed.

_We always were._ Said Chris.

And he was right. Even from that alternate timeline, Chris was always on his side. To the end.

" Hey there mister," Piper hooked her around Wyatt's, " Whatcha thinkin' about?"

" Just what an absolute dork Chris is," Wyatt snorted.

" Uh huh." Piper smiled knowingly. " Come on. Let's go find him before his friends decide to drag him away from us for the rest of the afternoon."

" Yup." Said Wyatt, nodding.

Chris Perry Halliwell is twenty-one. He is very much alive and very much happy, and whatever the future brings, he now has both more family and friends than he can ever ask for. Family and friends who will always support him.

" Twenty twenty-five!" Cried the graduates, followed by whooping and yelling, and all of the sudden Chris was right in front of Wyatt.

" Yo, Wy," Said his little brother, " Can I borrow your car for this evening?"

" No."

_Fin._


End file.
